


Arcanum: Count Your Lucky Stars

by sanitysrebellion



Series: Only for You I Gather the Stars [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A Very Self-Indulgent Fic, Alternate Universe - Additional Characters, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Mild Language, Mildly Exaggerated Canon Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2018-07-24 11:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 57,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7506855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanitysrebellion/pseuds/sanitysrebellion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serenity 'Ren' Ripley has had a long year. Hit by a car before her first off-planet mission, her former crew crashing at the edge of the solar system, the youngest daughter of her mentor's family crying conspiracy. </p><p>Working as an instructor for the Galactic Garrison things finally seemed to be settling down. A dull normality in the wake of loss. </p><p>Then the dead return, heralding an invasion. The only hope: Voltron.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Chariot

**Author's Note:**

> Tarot Card Prompt Challenge by RestlessRenegade on Lunaescence.
> 
> The first few chapters on this will be introductory chapters, focusing mostly on the original characters with appearances by canon characters. Namely the Holt family.

> **The Chariot = Strong Will and Pure Intentions**

“Oh, Serenity,” Mrs. Holt’s voice wobbled, her hands covering her mouth as if the physical blockade would dam the tide of emotions. “I didn’t think you’d be able to make it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Ren waved with her free hand, her other arm looped around the I.V. pole to keep it close. One of her legs was in a full leg cast, confining the mechanic to a wheelchair; the other leg braced at the knee. Ren hoped her smile looked more convincing than it felt.

From behind her, pushing the wheelchair, her cousin snorted. The corners of Aileen’s smile twitched, despite her light hearted tone, gaze shifted sideways as she spoke. “Even if she wanted to, at this point I wasn’t going to let her.”

“I told you,” Ren began, shifting as much as she could to look back at her cousin. Mrs. Holt stepped past them, discreetly dabbing at her eyes and patting the brunette on the shoulder as she passed. “I had it under control.”

Katie watched as her mother stepped out of the waiting area, arms crossed and waiting for the door to close before she spoke. “Did you...break out of the hospital, Ren?”

The mechanic opened her mouth to protest at the same moment Aileen laughed. “She tried! Would’ve hurt herself more trying to heave herself out of the bed if I hadn’t showed up.”

“I had it under control,” Ren repeated, making a sweeping gesture with her empty hand and earning more snickering from her cousin. Frowning she turned to the Holt girl, “What tipped you off?”

Polite enough not to openly snicker, Katie lifted a finger to point at the I.V. pole. “Most people don’t get out the doors with those still attached.”

“You’re not supposed to pull those out, you know.” Ren protested weakly as the corners of Katie’s mouth twitched upward.

“You know what else you’re not supposed to do, Ren?”

The mechanic bristled, turning her head to glare over her shoulder at the blonde. “I can still kick you, Aileen.”

The wide grin that slid across her cousin’s lips was almost intolerable. “No you can’t! You can’t even turn this wheelchair around on your own. I have all~the~power~.” Aileen wiggled her fingers to emphasize her words.

“Oh, you think so?” Ren arched an eyebrow, propping an elbow up on the arm of her wheelchair and resting her chin on the palm. The mechanic glanced over, smiling. “Katie?”

Aileen snorted, hands on her hips. “She is not going to kick me for y- OW!” The blonde jolted, grabbing the younger teenager in a headlock and shuffling a hand through her hair. Katie squawked indignantly, smacking at Aileen’s arms in an attempt to free herself as Ren laughed.

“Ah, it’s good to see you girls getting along.” Mr. Holt grinned, arms thrown wide as he stepped into the waiting room. “Warms my heart, it does.”

Matt ducked under his father’s arm, glancing between his sister and her friends. “Is that what we’re calling it?”

Katie finally managed to wriggle herself free of the blonde’s hold, scurrying over to her father. Mr. Holt scooped his daughter up, swinging her around and nearly knocking into his wife and mission pilot as they entered.

“Whoa,” Shiro side-stepped, narrowly avoiding an accidental foot to the stomach. He chuckled but made sure not to get to close as he moved into the room.

“Oh, Sam, now really.” Mrs. Holt attempted to frown as he husband spun their teenage daughter around like a toddler. The expression stuck for several seconds before her smile broke through as she watched the two of them fondly.

“Aileen,” the pilot greeted as he approached. “I see you're keeping Ren in check.”

“Of course,” the blonde smiled, completely ignoring the way Matt was looking between them and the I.V. pole.

“Personally,” Ren began, turning her head to kiss Shiro’s cheek as he bent down so she could reach. “I'm a bit offended that you think I need to be kept in check.”

Shiro arched an eyebrow as he straightened, the corners of his mouth twitching in a failed attempt to not smile. From behind him Matt snorted, the sound turning into open laughter with little hesitation. “Even if you could say that with a straight face, we've known you too long to fall for a line like that, Ren.”

“Fair,” the mechanic admitted with a shrug. “How long until departure?”

Mr. Holt hummed, finally returning his daughter to her feet. “As soon as final equipment checks are finished.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ren arched an eyebrow, propping her chin up with the heel of a hand. “Who’s running systems checks? Were you able to get Hofstetter?”

“No, no. He was still busy. It’s, ah, what’s his name?” Mr. Holt tapped at his chin, completely missing the cease-and-desist hand gestures his son was making. “Jenkins?”

“What?” The injured brunette balked, sitting upright as Matt groaned. “Jenkins? What do you mean Jenkins?”

“Please just let it go.” Matt pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing full and well their mechanic would do no such thing. “Let him do his job, Ren.”

“His job,” Ren scoffed. “Jenkins doesn’t know his wrench set from his-” she cut off, glancing over at Katie, who arched an eyebrow and Mrs. Holt, whose face was decidedly neutral. “Well, I could still do a better job. Infact…”

“No.” Shiro placed a hand on the wheelchair before Ren could even attempt to move it on her own. “We’re not doing that. We’re going to stay here and leave Jenkins alone.”

The mechanic harrumphed, settling into the chair in a way not unlike a pouting child. Katie glanced at Aileen, gesturing her confusion, but the blonde simply shrugged.

“It’s just,” Ren began, tapping her fingers against the back of Shiro’s hand. His hand turned, releasing the chair’s arm and turning to catch her fingers. “I haven’t been able to be involved for months. It’s bad enough I can’t go with you, I should at least be able to do this much.”

The Science Officer adjusted his glasses, side-eyeing the brunette. “So you’re upset because Jenkins gets to touch your stuff?”

“God d- Yes, Matt,” the mechanic scrubbed her free hand down her face. “You know how I feel about people touching my stuff. Why don’t you let Jenkins touch all of your science-y things and see how you feel.”

The Holt boy bristled, puffing up like an irritated kitten. “You know what they’re called, Ren. Why don’t you ever use the name?”

Ren dropped the hand from her face, grinning, her words lined with amusement. “Because if I did that then you wouldn’t make your angry face. It’s cute. Your nose crinkles.”

“It’s not cute!”

“Alright, children. That’s enough.” Mr. Holt laughed, clapping his hands for emphasis. “Let’s not bicker before departure.” The mission Commander turned to face the injured mechanic, concerned. “It bothers you that much, Serenity?”

“No,” Ren replied. Then, almost as soon as the word had left her lips, “Yes. I don’t know.”

“What’s that saying you use?” Shiro gave her hand a squeeze and Ren almost missed the laughter in his voice. “This isn’t our first rodeo.”

“I have never said those words before.”

“You definitely have,” Aileen snickered, Katie nodding her agreement. “Like, at least twice today.”

“It was the first thing you ever said to me.” Matt added, sounding pleased with himself.

“It was not,” Ren frowned, half-snapping. “And I know this isn’t your first time off-world, but it’s never been for this long or this far. It’s bad enough I can’t go with you. I should at least be able to do this.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with her free hand. “I don’t like not being involved when roughly half of my important people are blasting off into space. It makes my fingers itch.”

“Ren, look at me,” Shiro began, gently turning her head when the brunette made no effort to move. He leaned down, foreheads nearly touching, to hold her gaze. “It's going to be okay. Everything will be fine. You don't need to worry so much.”

The mechanic was silent for a moment, watching his face and debating the merits of arguing. “Don't ask the impossible, Shiro.”

“Just this once,” the pilot smiled.

“Get a room,” Matt interrupted and Ren laughed as Shiro went pink and moved away.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Ren waved a hand to get the Kerberos mission crew’s attention, the other checking her pockets. “Take these with you.” 

From a pocket the mechanic produced several meticulously folded origami stars; as near-perfect as she could make them, the paper shiny and gold.

“For luck.” Ren added quickly.

“Why, Serenity,” Mr. Holt chuckled, tucking one of the little stars into his uniform pocket. “I didn’t realize you were so superstitious.”

“Humor me,” the brunette insisted, passing the other two to Matt and Shiro.

“Really, Ren?” Matt sighed, turning the shiny paper star over in his fingers. “I’m still finding these things in pockets.” He paused, glancing over at Aileen even as he tucked the trinket safely away. “She’s just run out of room at the hospital, right?”

The blonde snickered, patting her cousin’s head. “They stopped giving her paper about a week in.”

“Alright,” Ren huffed, waving off Aileen’s hand. “If you’re just going to make fun of me then get out of here.”

A final round of goodbyes were exchanged. Mr. Holt giving his wife a very well done Hollywood-style kiss before the Kerberos crew filed out for final mission checks and departure protocol. The door to the waiting room swung shut behind them, leaving the room suddenly silent.

“It’ll be alright,” Ren repeated Shiro’s words, more to herself even as Katie took ahold of her hand. “They’ll be back before we know it.”


	2. The Moon

> **The Moon = Mystery and the Unknown**

Nights on the mountains were always cool but this late into the season, when the nights held the possibility of early snowfall, it was almost unbearable away from the bonfires. Family gatherings were normally a very loud affair- full of laughter, a questionable amount of beer and liquor, and the occasional firework. Tonight there was little noise past the natural sounds of wildlife and the bonfire; any other noise came from inside and was almost too muffled to distinguish.

Aileen had secluded herself on the porch, half buried in the largest blanket she could carry. It nearly enveloped her, covering her blonde hair, and nearly making the nighttime chill tolerable. It smelled like her mother. Aileen shuddered and turned her gaze skyward.

The moon was already above the treeline, stars painting the blackness of the night. She could smell the woodsmoke on the breeze, lights from the house casting dappled shadows along the yard. Aileen tucked her legs closer under the blanket, resting her chin on her knees. If she listened she could still hear the ghosts of similar nights on the breeze. Nights shared with cousins and brothers, those special secret times that had been mother and daughter.

The porch squeaked and the blonde girl sighed. “You’re not as sneaky as you used to be, Ren.”

From behind her Ren chuckled softly. The noise sounding more habit than genuine. “Is that a wheelchair joke? Or a slight about my creaky joints?”

“Both,” Aileen decided, turning her head to watch her cousin’s approach. “I can’t believe you let them put you in one of those.”

“I didn’t feel like arguing.” The brunette situated her wheelchair next to Aileen, as close to the edge of the porch as she dared. Aileen arched an eyebrow and Ren gave her best impersonation of her usual grin. “Alright, it’s good for sneaking contraband.”

From the blanket on her lap Ren produced a can, popping the tab before handing it off to her cousin.

Aileen squinted, attempting to read the label in the poor light. “Beer isn’t contraband.”

“It is,” Ren paused, opening a second can for herself. “When I’m not supposed to have it and you’re underage.” Another pause as the mechanic took a long drink. “Don’t tell on me.”

“You could’ve gone for the good stuff,” the teenager mumbled, shifting the can in her blanket-covered grip. She sighed, turning her gaze skyward. Minutes passed between then in silence, familiar but not entirely comfortable. “Do you hate them now?”

Ren blinked, the beer can lifted halfway to her lips. “Uh?”

“The stars.” Aileen clarified, watching the sky. “Do you hate them? After Shi-”

“We’re not here to talk about me.” Ren interrupted. Her words were quiet and soft but the edges were sharp.

The teenager frowned, sipping at her drink. For a moment she considered arguing. Of reminding her cousin that she had been in the hospital room when the news broke. Aileen’s memories of the news about her mother were blurry- a mess of sounds and colors- but Ren’s reaction to the Kerberos crash was clear.

No, that was a lie. If anything the news of her mother’s death was to clear in Aileen’s mind, too fresh. If pressed she could recall the scent of the room, but that wasn’t what she wanted to remember when she thought of her mother. So she skirted the edges of the memories, treating the thoughts as if they would burn her. Let her forget.

“I don’t hate them,” Ren admitted, leaning on the arm of her wheelchair to look down at her cousin. “But they’re different now. It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

Aileen grimaced, setting the beer can down beside her. “It feels empty.” The mechanic nodded, but said nothing. The blonde traced a finger around the rim of the still full can, tipping it dangerously to one side. “The house is full, everything is still here, but it feels empty. It’s wrong. And...and I think I do hate it.”

The blonde’s eyes burned and she muttered a curse, scrubbing vigorously at them. Hot tears dotted her shirt sleeve and sliding down her cheeks despite her best efforts. Her breath hitched even as she squared her shoulders, still fighting the losing battle of emotions. Ren’s wheelchair squeaked as the woman shifted, twisting herself at an odd angle to wrap her arms around her cousin as much as possible without tipping over. It was awkward and uncomfortable, likely for the both of them with Aileen half-squished against a wheel, but it was the best Ren could manage.

“It’s okay to cry, Aileen.”

“I don’t want-” the teenager gritted her teeth as her voice cracked, unable to finish.

“Sometimes it’s not about want.” Ren said softly. “Sometimes it’s about needing to. Not crying doesn’t make you any stronger and bottling up your feelings helps no one. It’s okay to cry.”

There was a moment’s hesitation, a last suborn effort, before Aileen finally allowed herself to cry. Ren ran her fingers through her cousin’s hair as she cried into the blanket around her shoulders. It wasn’t enough, it wouldn’t ever be enough, but it was all Ren was capable of doing.

“What happens now?” The words were little more than a whisper, Aileen’s worries escaping out into the night. Though her shoulders had stopped shaking, her voice was uncharacteristically delicate, cracking at the end of her question.

Ren turned her gaze skyward, considering. The stars glittered against the dark sky, almost peaceful. She couldn't pretend to know what they would face tomorrow. Everything that had seemed so certain, the constant parts of life, were gone. “We try.”

That’s all anyone could do in the face of an unknown tomorrow.


	3. The Heirophant

> **The Hierophant = A Search for Truth**

Ren awoke groggy and disoriented in the dark to a loud and frantic pounding. As her eyes adjusted to the flickering light of the television she realized two things: she never made it to the bed, again, and the pounding wasn’t coming from her head. She groped around in the near-darkness, blinking repeatedly, with only the vague hope of finding either a lamp or her phone. Instead her hand knocked against a poorly balanced crutch, sending it clattering into the coffee table. There was the telltale sound of all of her pill bottles knocking over.

“Piss.” Even in the dim light Ren could see the various pills scattered all over the tabletop and floor. The only thing easy to find in the morning would be the stray M&M’s.

The pounding at the door stopped, leaving the mechanic to wonder if the person had given up and left. She squinted around the darkened room. With sleep threatening to reclaim her and only the television for light everything was a mess of blurred shadows. All the curtains were drawn leaving Ren with no clue to the time, though she couldn't distinguish much light from underneath them. The streetlights? Rubbing at her useless eyes with growing irritation Ren pulled herself into a sitting position as quickly as her stiff legs and knee brace would allow.

“Ren?” The voice was so quiet, such a sharp contrast to the earlier pounding, that Ren almost hadn't heard it.

“Katie?” Ren reached for her crutch again, managing to pull it to her without knocking anything else over. A small blessing. Carefully the injured mechanic heaved herself off of the couch and hobbled over to the front door. It took a few more moments of fumbling in the dark to unlock the door one handed than Ren would care to admit. “What's wrong?”

The Holt girl stood on the porch, almost uncomfortably close to the door. Her hands were clenched at her sides, knuckles pale but the side of her fist pink from pounding on the door. Her hair was falling loose from the side ponytail.

Ren’s eyes narrowed. “What-”

“They're lying!” The words burst from the smaller girl with such intensity that Ren was startled into nearly dropping the only thing keeping her upright. Katie continued talking, sentences tumbling from her mouth with barely enough pause for breath. “They're lying, Ren. I've seen footage! It wasn't a crash. The ship is still there, you can almost see the equipment.”

“Wait, slow down.” The older woman awkwardly shuffled away from the door. “What footage? Who's lying?”

“The Garrison.” For a brief moment Ren was blinded as Katie flipped on the lights, illuminating the living room in a way the television never could. The smaller brunette frowned, looking over the mess covering the coffee table. “Why are all your pills on the floor?”

“They fell. Don't change the subject.”

Katie made a noise in the back of her throat that left Ren feeling a little insulted. She walked over to the coffee table leaving the mechanic to repeat her awkward shuffle and one handed fumbling to close and lock the front door. From behind her Ren could hear Katie sorting the pills back into their correct bottles.

“You're not going to talk now?” Ren lowered herself back onto the couch with a silent wince. “You were doing so well a second ago.”

Katie glanced up from her floor seat across the coffee table, jaw set. If the room wasn't properly lit the television would have cast dramatic lighting across her face. “Maybe I shouldn't tell you. You have family in the Garrison.”

“You're family.” Ren responded without hesitation. She tucked the crutch against the couch, away from the coffee table, and crossed her arms. “Whatever this is, it was important enough for you to show up in what I can only assume is the middle of the night.” Ren paused, frowning. “Does your mother know you're here?”

The Holt girl refused to meet her eyes, instead focusing on sorting the remaining M&M’s. Red, green, yellow, brown. “Have you ever noticed there aren’t any blue M&M’s?”

Ren sighed. “Katie…”

“I know!” Katie snapped. For an instant her shoulders rose, not unlike a kitten trying to make itself appear bigger. Then, slowly, she relaxed. “I know. I know she's worried but she won't believe me.”

“Call your mother,” the mechanic insisted, perhaps a little sterner than she had intended. Ren sighed again, rubbing her neck. Her fingers were cold against her skin. It helped chase away some of the groggy feeling threatening to reclaim her. “Tell her you fell asleep watching movies over here or something. Just let her know you're alright.”

“You're not going to make me leave?”

Ren shook her head, dropping her head back against the couch and propping her legs up on the coffee table. The one with the knee brace popped loudly. “You came here for a reason, Katie. Whatever sent you here was important. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But you can always trust me. I won't send you away if you're not ready to go.”

“Fine,” the girl mumbled, but she didn't sound angry. Instead she untucked herself from her spot on the floor, slowly walking into the kitchen to use the house’s landline phone. Ren’s cellphone still lost to the abyss of her earlier struggling.

Ren sighed, dropping one of her arms across her face to cover her eyes. Was this Katie’s way of coping with the crash? Was it wrong of her to keep encouraging this behavior? Her stomach churned and Ren wished she had something else inside of it past anxiety and M&M’s.

The couch sank slightly as Katie returned, choosing to sit beside her this time instead of on the floor. Ren shifted her arm and lifted her head slightly so she could see the girl. Katie had tucked her legs up to her chest, arms wrapped around them, and eyes just visible over the top of her knees glowering as if that particular spot on the table has personally offended her.

The smaller girl was quiet for a long moment, fingers twisting the ends of her now lopsided ponytail, before she finally looked over at Ren. There was something in her eyes that Ren couldn't place. “If I tell you what I know will you listen until the end?”

“About the Garrison?”

“About Dad, and Matt. And Shiro.” Katie’s grip around her legs tightened, eyes narrowing. “And what the Garrison is hiding.”

Ren dropped her arm from her face as she sat upright, staring. “Is this because of the funeral?”

The Holt girl’s eyes flashed. “Will you listen?” She repeated with extra emphasis.

Ren swallowed, mouth dry. In the back of her mind she couldn't help but wonder if she would regret her next words. “Tell me.”

Silence settled onto the room after Katie finished her explanation. One of Ren’s feet tapped against the coffee table. If it were possible for her to pace the room, she would have been. After speaking Katie had turned herself away from the mechanic, still curled on her end of the couch but unable to face her companion.

The older woman scrubbed her hands down her face, groaning. “Alright, what do we do now?”

“What?” Katie turned, looking wide-eyed over her shoulders at Ren. “We?”

“Yes, we.” Ren repeated. “If I’ve heard you correctly you’ve gone and gotten yourself banned from the Garrison on sight. If this is something you’re serious about- and I can see that you are- then you’re going to need help.”

“I can’t ask you to-”

Ren chuckled quietly, reaching over to bop the girl between the eyes. “Should’ve thought of that before you came and woke me up.” The mechanic paused, chewing on her bottom lip, grin faltering. “You really believe they’re alive?”

“I do.” There was no hesitation in Katie’s voice. It was all the assurance Ren needed.

“Then we’re going to need a plan.”

Ren awoke, stiff and mildly dazed, to open curtains and the sounds of someone in the bathroom. She groaned, stretching as much as her sore joints would allow, muttering her regret at sleeping on the couch. If she closed her eyes and ignored the pain Ren could almost pretend that this was a normal day. Back before Kerberos, before the accident, back when things were good.

Ren yawned, turning to face the bathroom did and calling out to Katie. “Hey, what do you think about getting breakfast?”

“I want pancakes,” Katie’s voice replied as the doorknob turned.

The person that stepped out from the bathroom wasn't Katie. Ren recognized the round glasses and the uneven haircut. She even recognized the green sweatshirt. The mechanic found herself face to face- as much as one could be when twisted awkwardly about the couch- with the missing Matt Holt.

Ren quite literally choked on her scream, the sound catching in her throat and escaping as an awkward sort of gurgling noise. She scrambled to her feet, or attempted to. Between the brace on her knee and the natural stiffness from sleeping on the couch the woman managed to get upright quickly, only to lose balance and topple into the coffee table. Hit at an awkward angle, with the full weight of a grown woman, the legs buckled. Both mechanic and table crumpling to the floor.

“Ren!” Matt shouted in Katie’s voice, bristling like a startled cat. “Are you okay?!”

“What the hell?” Ren groaned, rolling slowly onto her back. “What the hell? Katie, is that you?”

“It's Pidge,” the not-Matt grinned. The same crooked grin Ren knew. “Pidge Gunderson.”

The mechanic stared blankly as Katie- Pidge?- hurried to her side. “What?”

“This is my plan.”

“Your plan is to give me a heart attack?” Ren cursed silently as she struggled back to her feet. Katie- Pidge?- doing her best to act as a counterbalance until Ren could reach the couch arm and use it to lean against.

“That,” Katie- Pidge?- had the decency to look apologetic. “Was a miscalculation. I probably should have warned you. Didn’t we talk about this?”

“No, but seriously, what's your plan?” Ren hissed as she settled herself back on the couch. “Impersonating your brother?”

“I, Pidge Gunderson and not Katie Holt, am enrolling in the Galactic Garrison. A perfectly normal and not at all suspicious male recruit. They won't suspect a thing.”

There was a pause, Ren looking over the smaller girl and waiting for her heart to stop pounding. Katie- Pidge- was determined, that much was clear. Ren could either help her, somehow, or watch as she ran off to chase the truth. The idea of leaving her alone, when she was so desperate to find something, didn’t sit right with the mechanic.

“Your mother is going to kill me.”


	4. The Wheel of Fortune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternately titled 'SO NOW YOU'RE BACK, FROM OUTER SPACE'.
> 
> Tech Sergeant is a rank I borrowed from the Voltron Force reboot (sequel??), as the Garrison is very vague with their ranking system. Also, with the exception of Shiro and Pidge who have canon last names, I've used the ones from the 80's Voltron. If we're ever given ones in the series I'll change it.
> 
> A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment and kudos! ♥︎

> **Wheel of Fortune = Fate, Luck, or Prophecy**

Ren frowned, arms folded behind her back, as the rescue operation simulation played out before her. The pilot kept antagonizing his mechanical engineer, despite frequent warnings and the impending threat of a mess. Even without the conversations inside the simulator being broadcast for the rest of the class, the craft’s unnecessarily jerky movements made it obvious. From the corner of her eye Ren could see Commander Iverson’s face contorting. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from sighing.

The simulation lasted roughly five minutes before, figuratively, crashing spectacularly. Casualties included the main gear box, now in desperate need of cleaning and likely to never recover completely. There was a growing bruise on the Comm-Tech’s forehead, the mechanical engineer was still shaky from losing his lunch, and the pilot only looked mildly ashamed as he stepped from the simulator. Subtly Ren shifted on her feet, closing her eyes as the Commander stepped forward and the yelling began.

“Congratulations, cadets. You’re all dead!” The Commander turned, addressing the rest of the class. “Now, who wants to list of the many, many mistakes made just now?”

The class was quick to point out what had gone wrong in the simulation, listing several of the things Ren herself had observed: The sickness, while unavoidable, did little to repair the issue and would have made things worse in the field; The Comm-Tech taking a swan dive from the chair as if at the local pool; and the inevitable crashing of the craft.

Commander Iverson was quick to pounce on any perceived weakness. It was his favorite teaching method. “And as if that wasn’t bad enough the whole time they were arguing with each other! It’s just these sorts of mistakes that cost the men on the Kerberos mission their lives.”

Ren jolted, eyes snapping open. Pidge was shouting, but by the time her eyes focused Lance had mostly diffused the situation with that easy grin of his and some sort of muffling submission hold.

“Tech Sergeant Ripley.”

Ren stepped forward, meeting the one-eyed gaze of the Commander. She could feel her nails digging into the flesh of her palms. “Sir?”

“You've made your share of poor decisions.” Iverson assessed. From over the Commander’s shoulder Ren could see Pidge bristle in Lance’s hold.

“That is correct, sir.” The mechanic nodded, the motion a slight dip of her jaw. Her expression remained neutral. “I most certainly have.”

“What's your assessment of these cadets?”

Ren stepped past the Commander, straightening as she looked down at the three teenagers. Slowly Lance released his smaller classmate as the whole failed simulation team moved to stand at attention.

“Even the best team will argue amongst themselves, sir.” The Tech Sergeant paused and the cadets relaxed. “However there's a fine line between constructive disagreement and dangerous instigation, and that line was crossed ten times over.”

“The Tech Sergeant is too kind, considering the mistakes made in that simulation.” The Commander leaned down, nearly nose to nose with the training pilot. “You, especially. It would do you good to remember the only- and I repeat only- reason you’re here and not learning to organize cargo is because the best pilot in your year washed out. Care to follow him?”

“They have potential,” Ren interrupted, frowning. “Even with this failure, they have it. If they can stop sabotaging or tripping over each other long enough to unlock it is up to them. But to discredit them completely is-”

Commander Iverson glanced over his shoulder, scowl deepening as he straightened. “We’ll see about that, Tech Sergeant. Next unit!”

The day completed without further incident. The rest of the simulations went fairly smoothly, despite no one wanting to touch the main gear box even after hose down. As lights out was called for the cadets Ren found herself in the Instructor’s Lounge, wishing some of the budget went to better coffee. The Tech Sergeant contemplated the muddy liquid, frowning.

“How much do I hate myself tonight?” Ren muttered, just loud enough to earn a sidelong look from the man beside her. “Not that much.”

Tossing the cup into the trash as she passed, the brunette exited the lounge just in time to catch the silhouettes of two people hurrying around the corner in the dark. They weren’t moving with the purpose of a security patrol. Instead they were scampering, hurrying quickly past in what she could only assume was an attempt to not be seen.

Ren hesitated just outside the lounge doorway, squinting as she tried to place the shapes. “Is that...Garrett and, shit, the other one. What is it? McClain.”

_You’re off the clock_ , Ren reminded herself, even as her feet began to move. _You could just go to bed and pretend you didn’t see anything._

The mechanic snorted at her own thought, following several feet behind the teenage boys as the snuck through the dim halls of the Garrison. Lance, from what Ren observed, seemed to be very into sneaking around. She was left to wonder just how many spy movies the boy had watched. Several times she had managed to lose sight of them only to discover Lance had shimmied himself into a trash can or attempted to go up a wall. Hunk seemed to be enjoying himself far less, but had refused to turn back so far.

“This is the way to Pidge’s room,” Ren realized as she passed into the A5 hallway. “What are you up to?”

Several feet in front of her, leaning conspicuously around the corner, Lance echoed her words. The lanky cadet elbowed his friend, made some sort of gesture Ren couldn’t see, and the two hurried off down the hallway again. She could only assume it was after their team’s Comm-tech. 

Ren frowned, chewing at her bottom lip. “If I’m following them all this way for a late night pizza run, someone’s going to buy me breadsticks.”

The night air was cool, despite the sun setting only recently. With no lights for miles, save the ones from the Garrison itself, the stars were easily visible and twinkling softly. Pidge had perched almost precariously close to the edge, headphones on, laptop out, tech scattered around. Lance shook his head, taking a moment to pose like a disappointed parent before dropping to the ground to inch closer.

Carefully the pilot-in-training pulled back one side of the headphones, displaying more concentration and subtlety than he had in the simulator. “So, what’cha doin’?”

Pidge screamed and scrambled away, nearly knocking several pieces of tech off the roof. “Ahh, Lance!! I'm just looking at the star- _REN_?!”

The two boys jolted in surprise, whipping around- and nearly knocking into each other in the process- to find their instructor leaning against the doorway.

“Hello, boys,” Ren smiled and waved as if they weren't on the roof past curfew. There was a disappointing lack of pizza. “Come here often?”

Lance was the first to recover, sliding his crooked smile across his face and wiggling his eyebrows. “Well-”

“No,” Pidge interrupted, frowning. “Just no. Don't.”

The lanky pilot-in-training deflated as Hunk turned, reaching out for some of Pidge’s equipment. “Okay, but what is this? It’s not Garrison regulation.”

“No,” the smaller cadet agreed, smacking his hand away. “It’s mine. I built it. I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system with this baby.”

Lance arched an eyebrow, his interest renewed. “Oh? All the way to Kerberos, huh? What’s with you? You go ballistic every time someone even mentions it.”

Pidge’s expression faltered, the grinning pride quickly falling away to hesitation and uncertainty.

“Personally,” Ren began, stepping out from the doorway and onto the rooftop. “I like to think it’s on my behalf.” She put on her best grin, slowly lowering herself down to sit beside the small cadet. “But that’s just to puff up my ego.”

Hunk nodded sagely. “Right, right. Because you were supposed to go on that mission, too, and if you had you’d also be dead in space. And you’re…” He paused, glancing between the two and squinting. “Siblings…?”

The Tech Sergeant blinked slowly, once then twice as she attempted to process the cadet’s words. Then the smile returned and she reached out, folding her hands atop Pidge’s head. “This is my son.”

“That’s not it,” Pidge reached up, smacking Ren’s hands away. “And stop telling people that. Listen. I’ve been picking alien radio chatter since...since Kerberos. Most of it is, well, most of it is a mess.” 

The brunette turned away, rummaging through paper and wires. Lance leaned away, glancing between the other two. “Soo, Pidge is crazy.”

“Aliens?!” Hunk gulped, eyes wide. “There aren’t aliens. Right?” His attention swung over to the Tech Sergeant, eyes begging her to confirm his statement. “Right?”

“I’ve never-”

Her words were cut short as Pidge’s notebook was shoved in front of her face, the cadet pointing out something. “No, listen. They’ve been repeating a word. Voltron. And tonight the chatter’s crazier than I’ve ever heard it.”

Ren side-eyed the Comm-Tech, who was still excitedly gesturing at the paper. “What does that mean?”

As if on cue sirens began screaming, shattering the silence of the night. The Tech Sergeant was on her feet in a moment, one of the boys squealing in surprise, as Commander Iverson’s voice sounded over the P.A. system.

_“Code Zulu-Niner. I repeat, this is code Zulu-Niner. All cadets are ordered to stay in their bunks until further notice. Code Zulu-Niner.”_

“Zulu-Niner?” Ren repeated the code slowly, squinting at the P.A. speaker.

“Is that a meteor?!” Hunk yelped, voice cracking at the end.

“What? No. Zulu-Niner is-” The brunette’s words were cut off with a yelp of her own as the cadet took ahold of her head, turning it skyward. “A ship!”

“It can’t be one of ours!” Lance shouted, scrambling to find the binoculars.

“It’s one of theirs!” Pidge gaped, eyes wide and glasses slipping. “The Voltron?”

The ship sailed past the Garrison, disappearing into the surrounding darkness of the desert. As the warning sirens dimmed several floodlights burst into life, followed by the sound of engines. Pidge was the first to move, scrambling for the door and backpack nearly spilling equipment.

“I have to see this!” Lance tripped over his own feet in his hurry to catch up. “C’mon, Hunk!”

“Oh,” Hunk groaned, “I hope it’s not aliens.” He paused at the doorway, still jogging in place, and looked back at the Tech Sergeant. “Y-you’re coming, too, right?”

The mechanic chuckled, “At this point it’s either go with you or report you.” Hunk paled and Ren sighed. “I’m coming with you.”

The rocky outcropping was exactly that and little else: rocky. The side facing the Garrison pop-up structure crumbled away into something that could almost be called a path but the top was concerningly flat. If someone was looking the little group would be spotted quickly. 

“I don’t like this,” Ren frowned, reaching over and snatching the binoculars from Lance. The teenager gave an indignant squawk that she ignored, adjusting the focus. “There’s so many of them.”

The Tech Sergeant tapped irritably at the side of the binoculars. What was protocol for Zulu-Niner?

“Can’t we see what’s happening?” Lance whined, jostling Pidge.

“Maybe we should just go,” Hunk offered. The cadet was practically vibrating from nerves. “There’s no way we’ll get any closer.”

“There’s a camera. If I can just…” Pidge smacked away Lance’s hands, typing quickly at the open laptop. “There! I have the camera feed.”

Ren turned, lowering the binoculars and scooting around to see the computer screen. The camera feed flickered twice before coming into a grainy sort of focus. Lab equipment, members of the Medical and Science Department in hazmat suits, a table, and...

Ren forgot how to breathe.

“That’s Shiro!” Lance exclaimed, half shoving Pidge away from the laptop. “From the Kerberos mission! That guy’s my hero!”

Pidge frowned, glowering at the pilot-in-training and yanking the monitor back. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”

Hunk leaned over the other three, attempting to see the screen. “So he’s not dead in space.”

“Stop,” the Tech Sergeant mumbled absently, unable to look away from the grainy camera feed. “Stop saying dead in space.”

“Why aren't they asking about the rest of the crew?” Pidge repeated, voice cracking, but Ren was having trouble listening.

The Tech Sergeant was on her feet before she even fully processed the movement, stumbling slightly on the rocky slopes. She could hear the cadets shouting but couldn't register the words. Ren barely heard the explosions in the distance, only the sudden change in light distracting her. She stumbled again on stiff legs, now aware of the figure reaching the pop-up structure several steps ahead of her and the cadet’s footsteps behind her as they hurried to catch up.

“Who-” Ren began, hoping one of the cadets knew if the person ahead was friend or foe. She hadn't considered additional opposition. She hadn’t considered anything.

“Keith!” Lance shouted, overtaking the brunette woman to reach the door before her. “And his stupid mullet!”

Ren blinked, confusion temporarily overriding her urgency. “Kogane? He came back?”

“Why does everyone else know who Keith is?” Pidge demanded, winded. Hunk shrugged in response.

"Nope. No, no. No you don’t," Lance hissed, ignoring the question and shoving his way through the door. "You're not rescuing him before me."

Keith spared a glance as the other boy approached before focusing on the doorway behind him. He squinted, confused, and shifting his grip as Lance helped to balance the unconscious man between them. "Tech Sergeant Ripley?"

Ren stepped forward, scrubbing a hand across her mouth. Her eyes scanned the room, glazed and unable to focus. She teetered dangerously for a moment and Pidge hurried forward to steady her. "How? How did you-"

"Don't ignore me!" Lance bristled, his dramatic reunion with his self-proclaimed rival slighted. “I'm talking to you, Keith!”

“Shut up,” the red clad boy scowled. “Who are you?”

“It’s Lance!” No recognition passed across Keith’s face and it was the other boy’s turn to scowl. “We were in the same class at the Garrison.”

“Oh, right. The...engineer?”

Lance groaned so loud that if any of the outside guard had remained it would have alerted them. “I’m a pilot. We were rivals. Why do you remember her and not me?”

“Ren?” Pidge questioned tentatively as Hunk hovered awkwardly between the two groups, unsure of where to help.

“We need to leave.” Keith insisted. “They'll figure out it was a distraction soon and come back. We can't still be here when they do.”

“Wow, dude, cold.” Lance said, shifting Shiro’s arm around his shoulders. “Can't you see she needs a moment?” From behind the Tech Sergeant Pidge frowned, not buying into Lance’s sudden concern.

“No, no, he’s right.” Ren began, sounding a little more like herself as she steadied against the doorframe. “You need to go, now.”

“What?” Hunk asked, his voice squeaking at the end of the question. “What about you?”

“Whatever Kogane used to get here, it’s going to have enough trouble getting all of you out of here.” Ren glanced in the direction the explosions had gone off, fingers tapping the doorframe as she thought. “I’ll head back to the Garrison. There’s a few things I’ll need to pick up. Pidge, you know how to get ahold of me. Contact me when you’re safe.”

“I’m not-” Keith began, disapproval in his voice, only to be cut off by Pidge.

“You can’t! The camera- They’ll know you were here.”

The brunette woman smiled, the expression not quite reaching her eyes. “There’s no time to argue, so consider this an order, cadets: _Go. Now_.”


	5. The Emperor

> **The Emperor = Taking Action, Using Power**

“Wake up.”

Aileen buried her face into her standard issue pillow, grimacing. The voice sounded like Ren but her internal clock said it was still the middle of the night, only a few hours after curfew. Her room was still dark, even. Surely if her cousin had wanted her to wake up she would have turned on the light.

“Aileen. Wake up.” Ren repeated and the blonde paused, half frozen in the motion of pulling her blanket over her head. There was a subtle sort of urgency in the woman’s voice, an electric current around the edges encouraging movement. It was the same tone used during summer training drills, when Aileen’s brothers were closing on their flank.

Something was happening.

The cadet kicked off her covers, grogginess dissipating. She sat up, turning to face her cousin, and froze. Ren was silhouetted in her doorway by the dim hallway lighting; a dark shadow in a darker room. There was a look in her cousin’s eyes, just visible in the poor lighting, that Aileen couldn’t place.

“Ren?”

The Tech Sergeant didn’t respond right away, taking a moment to lean out the door and glance down the hallway. “I don’t have much time. But I didn’t want to just disappear without telling you.”

“You're leaving?” Aileen asked, unable to hide the worry in her voice. “What do you mean you're leaving? What happened?” The blonde didn't wait for an answer, shuffling to the edge of her bed and searching for her shoes in the dark. “I'm coming with you.”

“No, you’re not?” Ren frowned, glancing back into the room. “That’s not why I came here.”

“Well,” the blonde cadet started, giving up on her shoes and moving awkwardly towards her dresser. Ironically, Aileen nearly tripped over her shoes in the process. “Ow, fuck. I can either go with you willingly or I’ll just follow after you anyway. Your choice.”

The Tech Sergeant pinched the bridge of her nose, shutting her eyes briefly and fighting the urge to goran. “That’s not- You can’t just- Your career!”

“I’m coming with you.” Aileen repeated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. As she spoke the cadet pulled open one of her drawers, searching blindly in the dark for a change of clothes. “If this is important enough to send you out in the middle of the night, it’s important enough to involve me.”

This time Ren did groan. “Five minutes. You have five minutes to change and get essentials.”

“So, whose bags are those?” Aileen asked, nodding to the shapeless dark lumps at her cousin’s feet, her hands busy as she shimmied out of her pajamas and into proper clothing. “They aren’t yours.”

Ren shrugged her shoulders, gesturing vaguely to each bag. “Pidge, Garrett, McClain. I found some of Kogane’s stuff by pure chance when I ducked into a storage closet to avoid security.”

“I don’t...I don’t know where to begin questioning this, Ren.” The blonde said slowly, stepping into her newly located shoes and her hands tying her long hair into a quick ponytail. “Why were you avoiding security? Isn’t Kogane that Keith kid that dropped out at the start of term? Why the hell are you with Hunk and Lance? What-”

“Three minutes.”

Aileen groaned, dropping to her knees to fish her rucksack out from under her bed. In contrast to her shoes, she found the bag easily. The cadet returned to her feet and began stuffing the rucksack with clothes and whatever essentials happened to be on top of her dresser. “You’re going to tell me eventually, right?”

“You don’t have to come,” the Tech Sergeant reminded her. Her cousin snorted in response and Ren frowned. “Yes, I will tell you on the way to rendezvous and away from the Garrison. There’s no time to explain it here.”

Ren already had the sneaking suspicion that she'd lingered too long. Routine sweeps should have brought security down this hallway by now. The brunette’s frown grew, fingertips tapping on the doorframe. She glanced at her watch, despite it being too dark to see the face. Ren could just hear the faint _tick, tick, tick_ , over the sounds of her cousin packing. Her count wasn’t off. Security patrol was delayed.

“Scratch that,” she decided, gesturing for Aileen to close her bag. The Tech Sergeant bent down, scooping up the bags by her feet. “We're switching to double time. We need to move. Now.”

The blonde slung the straps of her bag over her shoulders before taking two from her cousin. Aileen grunted, surprised by the weight of one. “What did you put in this? Rock samples?”

Ren glanced down the hallway again as they moved and this time the blonde had the inkling that it was to avoid her gaze. “Garrett’s tools.”

“ _Oh my god_ , Ren!”

“Shh,” the brunette hissed. “Besides, a good mechanic is never without at least a screwdriver.”

Aileen shifted the straps across her shoulder. It felt like more than a screwdriver in the bag. “Isn’t he technically an engineer?”

“It still counts,” Ren insisted as they rounded a corner. Two steps ahead of her cousin Ren froze, one arm jutting out to keep the blonde from advancing. The mechanic hissing out the word between clenched teeth, “Shit.”

Commander Iverson cut an imposing figure through the hallway, dead center, arms crossed across his chest, singular angry expression only accented by the dim lighting. Flanking him were two other figures, the darkness keeping Ren from recognizing if they were security or other instructors.

“Tech Sergeant Ripley,” Iverson’s voice was the same gravelly rumble it always was. Whatever emotions he was feeling Ren couldn't read it. Best to assume he was as angry as he looked. The Commander glanced past the brunette’s shoulder to the teenager behind her. “I see you've dragged Cadet Edwards into your… insubordination.”

“I don’t recall being given any orders, sir.” Ren responded, slowly lowering the arm that had been blocking Aileen.

“Don’t argue semantics with me, Ripley,” Iverson snapped, unappreciative of the sass. “Your actions tonight have been so far over the line that I’m almost impressed.”

“Thank you, sir,” the mechanic chuckled even as Iverson’s eye narrowed. “I try.”

“Perhaps,” the man growled. “You should try acting your age instead of pulling cadets from their bunks in the dead of night.”

“Why Commander,” Ren placed a hand to her chest, feigned tone of concern only lasting halfway through her words. “That sounds questionable. I wouldn’t know about any questionable activity happening under the Garrison’s watch. Would you?”

“Where are Cadets Gunderson, McClain, and Garrett?” Iverson stepped forward. “Where is-”

“ _Don’t_.” Ren spat the word with enough ferocity that it surprised Aileen. All pretense of playing along with the Commander’s questions shattered in an instant. “Don’t you dare say his name. I trusted you, Iverson! You _lied_ to me!”

“You’re being irrational, Ripley. We lost contact. There was no reason for the Garrison-”

“I’m being irrational,” the Tech Sergeant repeated, elbowing the cadet beside her. “I’m being irrational, Lee.”

“Ren…” Aileen began as the bags her cousin had been holding hit the hallway floor.

The resounding smack of a fist coming into contact with a face echoed abnormally loud through the dark hallway. The Commander stumbled back, caught off guard. One hand rose to the aching spot on his jaw but Ren wasn’t giving him a chance to recover. She closed the distance between them, second punch ready, even as the other two men moved to intercept.

Commander and Tech Sergeant tumbled to the ground and Aileen screamed, chucking one of the bags she was holding at the approaching men. It hit the first one with the horrible crunch of heavy objects encountering soft, fleshy ones. Either unconscious from a bag of tools to the face or in too much pain to move the man crumpled to the floor and didn’t move.

The cadet sprinted forward, leaping over the tangle that was her cousin and commanding officer to reach Hunk’s bag. She grabbed the handle, swinging the makeshift bludgeon around to halt the second man in his tracks. He stumbled back, narrowly avoiding taking the bag to the gut and Aileen thought she recognized that mechanic her cousin hated.

“Ren!” She shouted over her shoulder. “We need to leave. _Now_!”

The brunette woman grunted, the sounds of struggle continuing for a few moments afterwards. When Aileen turned the Tech Sergeant was scrambling away from Iverson, her discarded bags tucked again under one arm. The Commander was pulling himself to his feet, blood seeping through the fingers of the hand across his face, shouting words Aileen didn’t bother to understand.

“Get _the fuck_ out of our way, Jenkins.” Ren snarled. If the situation were different Aileen might have laughed at the way the man turned and began sprinting in the opposite direction down the hallway.

Lights were beginning to click on, doors opening as the cadets awoken from the shouting and sounds of fighting began to investigate. The cadet and the Tech Sergeant began sprinting down the hallway, unintentionally following the route Jenkins had fled in. One of the doors slid open, and a half asleep cadet stepped out, leaving Ren to side step to avoid crashing into him.

“T-Tech Sergeant Ripley?”

The brunette didn’t bother looking back to register which cadet she had nearly ran over. “Class is cancelled tomorrow!” Ren called over her shoulder as she and AIleen barreled out of the door. “And I quit!”

The cab of the old pickup truck was completely silent, save for the jangle of keys and the sounds of the tires on the desert soil. Ren’s hands were tight on the steering wheel, knuckles red and scraped. Blood was beginning to well up, the metallic tang somehow managing to overpower the little tree air freshener dangling from the rear view mirror.

“I can’t believe you punched Commander Iverson.” Aileen spoke up, an attempt at laughter in her voice, finally breaking the silence. “Twice.”

Her cousin didn’t respond and the blonde hesitated, chewing on her bottom lip. The two lapsed back into silence and Aileen shifted in her seat. They were close enough as cousins and friends that spending time in silence wasn’t unusual but this felt wrong to the blonde. It was awkward and Aileen could almost feel Ren wrestling with some internal struggle. The red on her cousin’s knuckles a warning flag.

“Is this about Shiro?” Aileen asked, watching her cousin from the corner of her eye. “Is that why you said Iverson lied? Did...did Pidge find something?”

“Not exactly.” One of Ren’s hands- the uninjured one- left the steering wheel, rolling down the driver’s side window. She somehow managed to fish a cigarette from the half-crumpled pack in the cup holder, sticking the cigarette between her teeth and starting the in-car lighter before speaking again. Her fingers were shaking. “Did you hear the alert?”

The blonde nodded slowly. “But I didn’t hear the code. I thought it was a drill.”

“It was Zulu-Niner.”

“Zulu-!” Aileen’s brown eyes widened. “A ship! Then..?”

The lighter clicked, signalling it was hot, and Ren pulled it free to light her cigarette. The handle felt hot against her fingertips, and the sensation lingered after the lighter was returned. The mechanic inhaled deeply, slowly breathing the smoke out between her teeth. Aileen watched the smoke curl around her cousin’s face before disappearing out the window.

“It was Shiro.” Ren ground her teeth, crushing the filter. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel and the speedometer climbed a little higher. “He was alive. Iverson looked me in the eye and said the crew had died. Organized funerals and he was _alive_. What about Matt? What about Commander Holt?”

The former Tech Sergeant slammed her fist into the steering wheel and the pickup truck swerved. The ash from her half-forgotten cigarette dropped as Ren righted the pickup’s course. When the brunette spoke again her voice was quiet, all the anger and sharp edges crumbling away. “I don’t know if the Garrison even looked for them.”

“Ren…” Aileen began, searching for the words. “You should have hit him harder.”

Ren laughed but Aileen caught the wobble in the sound as her cousin tossed her now useless cigarette out the open window. “Grab my phone and see if Pidge has told us where to find them yet.”

Pidge’s coordinates and Google Maps lead the duo and the beat up truck to what could only be referred to as the Middle of Nowhere. There was a single room shack in front of them, well constructed and maintained. The surrounding area seemed completely flat and dusty, just like the desert had been for miles leading up to the location. No visible signs of a water source or garden.

“I have questions,” Ren frowned as she parked the truck several yards away from the shack. “Several questions. And a concern.”

“Just the one?” Aileen laughed as she opened the passenger side door and stepped out of the truck. The blonde reached into the back of the truck and began gathering the bags.

The door to the shack swung open and Pidge hurried out to meet them. Ren squinted in the sunlight, stepping out of the truck and shutting the door with her hip. She watched Pidge close the distance between them for a few moments before stepping around the truck to stand beside her cousin.

“Two concerns.” Ren amended, raising an arm to wave. She could see Lance and Hunk leaning out the still-open door to watch. “Everything alright, Pidge?”

“No.” Pidge paused, glancing over at Aileen as if realizing she was there for the first time. “Maybe? I don’t know. Keith might have a lead on the Voltron.”

“The what now?” Aileen arched an eyebrow, looking between Pidge and Ren for clarification.

“It's the alien weapon hidden on Earth. Shiro says the aliens that captured the Kerberos crew are looking for it.” Pidge answered, adjusting slipping glasses and glancing back towards the shack. “But listen-”

“Three concerns,” Ren decided, scooping up several of the bags and starting for the door. Hunk and Lance ducked back inside as if they hadn't been watching. “Two and a half, maybe?”

“I think ‘impending alien invasion’ should be a larger concern.” Aileen frowned as she followed, gesturing for Pidge to continue as they walked. “So Keith dropped out of the Garrison to go alien hunting?”

“I don't think that was it.” There was a fidget to the smaller cadet. “Look, it's about Shiro-”

“Hold up, Ren, maybe you should-” but the words trail off. Aileen can see it in her cousin’s posture as they reach the shack’s door. The mechanic was standing straighter, shoulders squared. Her hand closed around the bags she was carrying that if they hadn't been red with blood and injury they would have been white.

The blonde swallowed, wondering what could have happened to the pilot in the past year that would make Ren feel the need to steel herself before walking through that door. Aileen glanced at Pidge, but the sunlight glaring off glasses kept her from reading the cadet’s expression.


	6. Judgement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter would not end. This isn't even where I wanted to stop but it needed to stop.
> 
> Ren shows off some of her unhealthy coping mechanisms in this chapter. Please handle your emotions better than she does, children.

> **Judgment = answers, decisions, reason**

Ren had been correct in her assumption that the shack was only one room. An entire wall was taken up by papers and notes taped to the wall, escaping from the corkboard until almost no wood was visible. There was a single, large, table and a rickety looking couch that must have doubled as a bed. Equipment was stacked in a corner near the ‘conspiracy theory’ wall. At a quick glance Ren couldn’t be sure if it was radio equipment or some sort of scanner. There seemed to be no refrigerator or bathroom.

Ren frowned. Her list of questions increased.

Aileen paused, lingering in the doorway even as Pidge squeezed past her. The blonde almost didn’t recognize the man standing beside Keith. Suddenly her cousin’s actions the past night made more sense. Shiro looked almost a completely different person than he had when the crew left for Kerberos. If Aileen was so surprised she could only imagine what had gone through Ren’s head.

The pilot seemed to have noticed the blonde cadet watching him, turning slightly and offering her a friendly smile. It seemed stilted, out of place, as if it had been a very long time since Shiro had worn the expression. Aileen returned the gesture, an equally awkward upturn of her mouth as she finally stepped into the shack, kicking the door closed behind her.

Lance groaned, leaning back almost dramatically with one hand over his eyes. “What did you go and bring Crazy Edwards for? Don't you know what the Security Division says about her?”

“No,” Ren began, smiling in a way that subtly spoke of danger. “Enlighten me, McClain. What do they say about my cousin?”

“That-” Lance faltered, briefly glancing at Hunk. The engineer shook his head, holding up his hands in silent surrender. Lance returned his gaze to the smiling woman, nervous laughter on the edges of his words. “That she's a delight. They're probably going to miss her.”

Ren scoffed, expression sliding into a smirk as she side-eyed her cousin. “Sure, I'll buy that one.” Lance relaxed and Aileen stuck her tongue out as she shuffled around the table to dump the bags onto the end of the couch. The former Tech Sergeant chuckled under her breath before continuing, “Your recovery could use work though. Only two points.”

“I’m being graded?” Lance balked. “What’s the scale?” He turned, gesturing to Hunk for clarification. “Hunk! You were in her classes. What’s the scale?”

The engineering cadet shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, I dunno, man. She just sort of assigned points like Hogwarts.”

“Hey. Hey now, I have a syste-” The sentence fell short, Ren’s joking expression faltering then falling into open confusion as Shiro reached his hand across the table. “Huh?”

“An introduction,” he offered. “Since everyone else seems familiar with you already.”

From the corner of her eye Ren saw Pidge flinch and Aileen’s eyebrows knit together but the mechanic was having difficulty tearing her attention from the hand outstretched in front of her. She blinked several times in quick succession, lifting her head to follow the line of the pilot’s arm. Blue eyes wide as they focused on his face, searching.

“Huh?” Ren repeated, the word sounding odd even to her own ears. Shiro frowned, fingers curling slightly as he lowered his hand.

“That’s not funny!” Aileen snapped, hands clenching into fists as her shoulders rose. “That’s not-! Who put you up to it?” The blonde whipped around, her attention focusing on the former cargo pilot. “Was it you, McClain?!”

Lance jolted, taking a step back despite the limited space of the room and holding his hands up. “Whoa, whoa! I don’t know what you’re talking about, Edwards!”

“We’ve-” Shiro began slowly, glancing away from the mechanic. “Met before, haven’t we?”

The pilot began to take his hand away and Ren reacted, suddenly aware. She reached out, taking ahold of Shiro’s hand as if it were a lifeline and without it Ren feared the floor would crumble under her feet.

“Serenity,” she replied, slowly easing her grip into a normal handshake. “Serenity Ripley, mechanic. We-” Ren hesitated for a heartbeat, biting the inside of her cheek. “We were in the same year at the Garrison.”

Recognition flashed in his eyes. “That’s right, Matt’s friend.” Shiro chuckled, the sound a quiet rumble. “He talked about you a lot.”

“You know,” Ren placed her best smile on her face, ignoring the concerned look Pidge gave her. “I bet he did.” Her fingers lingered a little longer around his hand before she released it, gesturing at the blonde cadet. “And this is my cousin, Aileen Edwards. She has weapons training outside of Garrison curriculum. I don’t know what this Voltron is but she might have some input when we find it.”

Aileen said nothing, instead crossing her arms and refusing to look in the direction of her cousin and the Kerberos pilot.

“She’s shy,” Ren laughed, a little too loud, waving her hand as if to dismiss the topic. Lance snorted, rolling his eyes.

“So, uh,” Hunk spoke up, twiddling his fingers nervously. “I was going through Pidge’s stuff last night, right?”

“Huh?” The mechanic asked for the third time, raising an eyebrow.

Pidge bristled, puffing up like an angry kitten. “Why would you do that?”

“Well, I wanted a candy bar and Lance only has Skittles and the Tech Sarge usually has M&Ms-”

“Ren,” the brunette woman interrupted. At the cadet’s confused look she elaborated, “At this point y’all might as well call me by name.”

“Y’all?” muttered Keith to himself.

“All y’all?” Aileen offered. “Yous kids?”

“But she wasn’t here yet.” Hunk continued before an argument could begin. “So I thought Pidge might have something, but all I found was this picture of his girlfriend. She’s cute.” Pidge sputtered, unable to form a comeback, so the Engineering cadet carried on. “And then I found his diary.”

“You didn’t.” Ren frowned as Pidge gave an indignant squawk of surprise.

“I did, I did,” Hunk admitted with surprising ease. “And I noticed something! That repeating series of numbers that Pidge keeps picking up from the aliens, it looks an awful lot like a Fraunhofer Line.”

The blonde girl narrowed her eyes. “Now you’re just making up words.”

“No, no. It’s a thing. It’s for,” the former Tech Sergeant snapped her fingers, attempting to jog her memory. “Ah, something.”

“Very descriptive, Ren.”

“It’s a way of tracking elements by their wavelengths,” Hunk explained. “Only this one isn’t like any element on Earth. I could probably build something to track it, since it’s so unique. Oh!” He bounced on his heels slightly, reaching into his pocket. “I graphed it out. See?”

Hunk unfolded the paper from his pocket, holding the graph out for everyone to see. Keith’s eyes widened and he nearly threw himself across the table to snatch the paper. He turned, holding the graph to his corkboard, lowering it slightly to show the graph matched with the photo of the cliff face.

“Okay,” Aileen stage-whispered, leaning closer to her cousin. “I may not know much but that’s not how wavelengths work.”

Ren squinted, trying to take in the whole wall, even as Keith continued to block a good chunk of the middle. “Why is this so important? Is this the lead Pidge mentioned?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Lance perked up. “You two weren’t here for Keith’s conspiracy theory.” The lanky teenager rubbed his hands together, almost gleeful. “So, get this. Keith here says the desert called out to him like some sort of fantasy action hero and he’s spent the whole year searching and he finds this cave, right? And the cave’s full of blue lion doodles.”

“That’s not what I said!” Keith snapped.

“That’s not really a conspiracy theory,” Ren added simultaneously. The woman shrugged, turning on her heel and pushing open the shack’s door.

“Wait, where are you going?” Pidge asked, half afraid she had decided to leave. “Ren?”

“I have a change of clothes in the car,” Ren explained, though she didn’t turn around. “If we’re going after alien weapons I’d rather not be wearing Garrison insignia.”

“Why?” Lance blinked, confused. “So we can impress the aliens with our fashion choices? Because, see, Keith has a cropped jacket and a mullet-”

This time it was Aileen’s turn to groan and roll her eyes. “No, stupid. So if anything’s with this weapon it won’t see the uniform as a sign of an organized assault and turn attention on the Garrison.”

The mechanic left the shack as calmly as she could manage but crossed the distance to the pickup truck with long, hurried strides. Jaw clenched and grateful her back was to the building. Her vision blurred and Ren turned her attention to her breathing, fighting to keep it steady. With more urgency than she cared to show Ren hurried around the front to the driver’s side, one hand reaching for the door. Her fingertips found the handle and the brunette crumpled against the door, not even bothering to attempt to open it.

There was something oddly comforting about the feel of the metal against her forehead as Ren struggled to breathe normally. She swallowed the urge to scream, biting her lip until she was sure that she could taste blood. The hand she had used to punch Iverson clenched, Ren still acutely aware of how Shiro’s hand had felt in hers. It drew back, slamming into the faded red paint of the pickup truck until the only pain the mechanic was aware of was physical.

“Pull it together,” she hissed through her teeth, shaking the hand out and spattering blood on the sand. “You don't have time for this. Bigger problems. Now get your shit in gear before someone comes looking.”

Ren stepped back from the truck door, yanking it open with her good hand. The cab of the pickup truck was uncomfortably humid but she couldn’t bring herself to care. The mechanic slid into the driver’s seat, leaning awkwardly across to reach the glovebox. It clicked open with thankfully minimal effort but dumped half of the contents onto the floor.

“That’s fine,” she grunted, stretching for the box of bandaids. “That’s just fucking peachy.”

Her one-handed patch job to her bloody knuckles was shoddy. Someone would have to redo it later but she wouldn’t smear blood across her change of clothes. Ren flexed her hand, testing that the randomly patterned bandages would remain put. Satisfied, the mechanic began rummaging under the seats for the plastic bag containing her emergency change of clothes. She yanked it free, sitting up proper, and swinging her legs around to the still open car door. Ren reached out, yanking the keys free so she wouldn’t have to keep listening to the ding, ding, ding as she changed, dropping the keys into the cup holder.

Changing was a fast matter once Ren had kicked her feet free of her boots. Uniform pants exchanged for worn jeans, the dark denim beginning to fade and the cuffs rolled up. Uniform jacket removed and tossed aside, leaving a plain grey t-shirt. There was no need to worry about the state of her Garrison uniform, leaving it crumpled on the passenger seat. Ren stepped out of the truck and into her boots, one hand lingering over the folded flannel shirt still inside the truck’s cab. The brunette bit her lip, injured hand running through her hair.

“Fuck it,” Ren decided, grabbing the shirt and shrugging it on. Her hand rested on the too-large watch for a heartbeat before she shook her head and pushed up the sleeves past her elbows. “It’s not like he’ll know.”

She laughed then, a broken sound that made her cringe as the sound died off. Ren shook her head, turning around to snatch her pack of cigarettes. The cigarettes were tucked into her shirt pocket as the mechanic knocked the door shut with her hip, shuffling around to the truck bed, not bothering to tie her boots.

“Hup,” Ren grunted, hefting herself over the side of the truck bed and balancing on her stomach to reach her truck bed toolbox. The former Tech Sergeant smacked it with the side of her fist, the uninjured one, and it popped open. “Alright, babies, who’s coming with mama to help keep her sane?”

Inside the stainless steel toolbox were the bulk of Ren’s tools, all neatly aligned. There were several leather bundles containing sets of wrenches or hammers, a heavy duty toolbelt containing the larger equipment looking more suited for home construction, and a smaller, more compact one. The smaller toolbelt contained several multipurpose tools, Ren’s favorite screwdriver, and a pack of gum if she recalled correctly.

“Junior it is.” Ren licked her lips, carefully laying the smaller toolbelt over her shoulder. She paused, grabbing the smallest bundle of wrenches and tucking that under an arm as well. The brunette shifted, kicking her legs slightly to give herself enough leverage to shut the toolbox proper. 

Ren dropped back to the ground, stumbling slightly and nearly tripping herself on loose shoestrings. “C’mon, Junior and company, let’s go find an alien weapon.”

Walking back to the shack, shoelaces smacking against the desert ground and knocking up little puffs of dust, Ren could almost pretend everything was fine. She could breathe again, even though her knuckles were throbbing. Belatedly Ren remembered the Tylenol in the glovebox. She tsked, annoyed, and hoped Lance and Aileen weren’t still bickering as she pushed the door open.

“Ren!” Pidge said, nearly as soon as the older woman pushed open the door. “You were gone ten minutes. What did you do to your hand?”

The mechanic blinked, glancing at the hand holding open the door and the neon and star patterned bandaids haphazardly stuck on. “It was like that when I got here.”

Keith glanced up from watching Hunk work, eyebrows knitting together. “What does that mean?”

“It means she’s stupid,” Aileen piped up, watching the computer over Pidge’s shoulder.

“Thanks, Lee.” Ren rolled her eyes, shutting the shack door behind her. “How’s the alien weapon tracker coming, Garrett?”

“Hunk,” the teenager responded, glancing up from his work. “It’s Hunk.”

“Is that…” the mechanic squinted, setting the leather bundle on the table and sliding the toolbelt off of her shoulder. She fastened it around her hips in a single, practiced motion looking confused. “Is that some sort of slang?”

“It’s my name,” Hunk grinned while Lance nearly doubled over from laughter. “Well, a nickname but I figure if we’re calling you by name instead of rank then, maybe, you could do the same?”

“I knew that. I _knew_ that.” Ren said, uninjured hand reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I'll work on it. Would someone shut him up?”

“Oh, dibs!” Aileen half-vaulted over the table to get to the laughing pilot.

“No. No, no, no!” Lance scrambled away as the blonde attempted to put him in a headlock, knocking several things from Keith’s wall in the process.

“Alright,” Shiro frowned, sticking an arm between the two cadets to separate them. “That’s enough. Let’s focus on the issue at hand.”

“Spoilsport,” Aileen tsked, crossing her arms.

Two hours later the group was standing in front of a cave mouth, nearly hidden by the surrounding rock formations. Hunk and Pidge were operating the tracker Hunk built. It was beeping steadily, signalling they were in the right spot. To be honest, Ren was still impressed they had been able to put together such a competent machine with parts from Keith’s shack and the back of her truck.

“This is it,” Keith said, sounding as certain as if there was a sign posted at the cave’s entrance.

“Oh man,” Aileen frowned. “We’re going to die in here.”

Hunk paled, looking between the cave and the blonde. “What? Why? Why would you say that?”

She jerked a thumb at the cave opening, looking serious. “This is the set up for some horror movie bullshit.”

“Well, yeah,” Pidge frowned. “Now that you’ve gone and jinxed us.”

“Alright, children.” Ren said, coming the close to actual laughter for the first time. “Let’s not start arguing horror movie tropes. Let’s just go find the alien weapon.”

“That’s a death flag!”

“Stop saying death flag!” the mechanic snapped, not wanting a repeat of ‘dead in space’. “We’re not doing that.”

“I’m just saying,” Aileen argued as the group moved inside the cave.

“No,” Ren insisted, figuratively putting her foot down.

“Whoa,” Lance exclaimed as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. “Keith wasn’t joking about all those lion doodles.”

“They’re not doodles,” Keith bristled. “They’re carvings. Ancient records of-”

“Yeah, I’m not listening.” Lance waved a hand, leaning closer to one of the lion carvings on the wall. He leaned closer and closer until he was nearly touching the wall with his nose, squinting as if trying to decipher some hidden meaning. Licking his lips Lance decided, “I’m going to touch it.”

“Why?” Shiro sighed. “Why is that your first instinct?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Lance shrugged his shoulders, reaching out and brushing the gathered dust and dirt from one of the lion carvings. “Seems right.”

“So,” Aileen began, leaning closer to her cousin. “Lance dies first in this movie.”

Ren turned, placing her hands gently on Aileen’s cheeks and squeezed gently. “No.”

The carvings all along the cave walls began to glow an unnaturally bright blue, lighting up the cavern as far as the eye could see. Strange circular symbols and large blocky lions rampant across nearly every surface. It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t the most unnerving thing Ren had seen since the alien ship containing Shiro had sailed past the Garrison.

“They’ve…” Keith began, turning slowly around with his eyes wide. “They’ve never done that before.”

“Well, shit,” Ren frowned, dropping her hands from AIleen’s face. “Is that a good thing?”

The ground rumbled, causing Lance to scramble away from the now glowing wall and back over to the group. Cracks began forming under their feet, the name blue glow emanating from whatever was beneath them.

Pidge turned, making eye contact with the mechanic in the small instance before the floor fell away. “No. I don’t think it is.”

One of the things Ren was aware of as they fell- besides the screaming- was that this wasn’t a straight fall. The second was that this cave must have had some connection to an underground water source, as it was now less of a fall and more of a slip-n-slide from hell. Lastly the mechanic realized with dawning horror that this hellish slide was about to end, and they would be free falling into the unknown.

The water at the end of the drop was almost comforting. It was cool and it was concerningly tempting to just lay there, staring at the spot they had fallen from. To be honest, Ren was grateful that no one had landed on her, though Aileen had come close.

“Whoa,” Lance breathed from somewhere ahead of her. “They really are everywhere.”

Ren followed the group’s line of sight as she carefully pushed herself out of the water and onto her feet. Her knees hurt from her poor attempt to right her landing into the water as she fell and the movement took a greater effort than the mechanic cared to acknowledge. What she saw sent her back into the water, knees going weak from surprise.

There several feet in the distance, surrounded by some sort of forcefield, was a giant robotic lion. Both the lion and the forcefield surrounding it were the same beautiful blue color the carvings in the cave above them had glowed.

“Shit,” the brunette woman breathed, reaching out and smacking her cousin on the leg. Aileen wasn’t as close as Ren had figured and the gesture took two attempts, partly because the mechanic couldn’t tear her eyes away from the lion. “Got any input, Lee?”

“No, Ren.” Aileen hissed through her teeth. “I don’t have any experience with fucking Zoids.”

Keith and Lance were the first to approach the lion, arguing about how to get past the barrier. The blonde splashed her way over to her cousin, cautiously eyeing the huge mechanical lion. Aileen crouched down behind Ren, sliding her arms under the woman’s to help lift her back onto her feet with relative ease. 

“One, two…”

Lance reached out and rapped his knuckles against it as if the barrier were a door.

“Wait, wait,” Ren interrupted Aileen’s lifting, freezing the two of them in some awkward half-standing pose; as if they had been doing trust falls and didn’t quite have the timing right. She gestured, pointing at the other members of the group who were still staring blankly at the lion. “What’s wrong with them?”

The blonde cadet shrugged, jostling her cousin. “I mean, it’s a giant robot lion...thing. I don’t think anyone was expecting that.”

Lance jerked as if shocked, shattering whatever spell hung over the five. “Did everyone else see that?!”

“What?” Ren asked, wondering when the forcefield had vanished.

Hunk practically vibrated as he tried to process whatever had happened, hands on the sides of his face. “Voltron is a giant robot! A huge, awesome robot. With a sword!”

“What?” Aileen repeated, shoving her cousin back onto her feet.

“And this is only one part!” Pidge added to Hunk’s excitement, pointing at the robot lion. “That's amazing!”

“What?” The two cousins echoed. None of the other five seemed to want to clarify. Whatever it was they had seen the mechanic and the blonde cadet hadn't been privy to it. A fact that was quickly annoying Aileen and putting Ren on edge.

The great blue lion moved, drawing everyone’s attention. It lowered its head to the ground, mouth open wide. Lance glanced around at everyone else, a grin slowly sliding across his face.

“Oh no,” Ren said, starting to close the distance between her and the teenager. With her knees sore from the fall the mechanic was reduced to a limp, leaving her slower than she would prefer. “That’s a bad idea face.”

“That’s just his face,” Aileen countered, steps behind her cousin.

“Shiro, grab him!” The mechanic pointed but Lance was already halfway into the giant robot lion. “Damn, that kid’s fast.”

“I think that you're just slow currently, Ren.” Aileen said, stepping around the brunette woman to start up the ramp after Lance.

Ren turned her head slowly to face the blonde. “Are you just here to sass me?”

“Hmm, you're right,” Aileen admitted, walking backwards up the ramp. “Pidge, take over with the sassing.” She licked her lips, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “C’mon, Keith. We’re going to go touch buttons.”

The former Garrison cadet glanced over his shoulder at Shiro before shrugging and starting up the ramp himself.

“Wait for me,” Hunk called, hurrying after the others.

“I’m glad everyone is handling this so well.” Ren huffed, running a hand through her hair.

Shiro chuckled, the sound so familiar and normal that it was almost a slap in the face. “I’ve seen stranger things.”

“Come on, Ren,” Pidge added, grinning crookedly. “Are you telling me that you don’t want to push buttons?”

The mechanic sighed, rolling her shoulders. “I do. I do want to push buttons.”


	7. The Empress [Part One]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's turning out to be another long one, so I decided it best to split it in two.
> 
> Also I have a Voltron specific side-blog on tumblr at spacelionsrampant. Come talk to me about Voltron, the characters, this story, ext.

> **
> 
> The Empress = cooperation and reception
> 
> **

The cockpit of the blue lion was smaller than Ren had assumed, judging from the robot’s size. This...whatever it was had been designed for a single pilot. Lance had, of course, taken up the sole seat at the controls leaving everyone else to pack in like sardines. Aileen had draped herself across the teenaged pilot’s lap, one leg crossed and head turned to survey the controls.

“Uh, Lee?” Ren arched an eyebrow, squeezing herself into the spot between Hunk and Keith. “What’re you doing?”

“Well,” the blonde steepled her fingers together, looking both the stereotypical villain and the cat on their lap. “This is a weapon and as the resident weapons expert-”

“Expert?” Pidge glanced back at Ren, looking skeptic. The mechanic made a vague gesture and shrugged.

“As the resident weapons expert,” Aileen repeated a little louder. “That makes me the most qualified to operate this kitten. Lance, get out of my seat.”

“Hmm, yes, I see your point,” Lance nodded sagely, fingers wiggling as he reached past the girl on his lap to reach the controls. “But this is also a ship, and you can’t fly.”

The blonde turned her head, quiet for a moment. She reached up, poking the pilot’s cheek. “Can you?”

“Of course!” Lance grinned, sounding smug. His smile sparkled in the blue light of the cockpit. “They don’t call me ‘the tailor’ for nothing!”

“Oh no,” groaned Pidge. Hunk made a strangled noise, scooting over to take the former Tech Sergeant by the shoulders. Ren wasn’t sure if the cadet expected her to be some kind of unmoving pillar of support or if he was using her as a shield. She feared the latter.

“Wait, isn’t that what you said before-”

“Here we go!” Lance interrupted, laughing loudly as he turned the controls.

The blue lion rose from its haunches, leaping free from the cave with surprisingly minimal effort. Aileen had latched herself onto the collar of Lance’s jacket, unclear if the action was to keep her in the seat or if she was trying to strangle the pilot.

“What are you doing?!” Ren shouted. If it hadn’t been for Hunk behind her the mechanic was certain that she would have ended up on the ground yet again. Or as close to ‘on the ground’ as one could get in such a crowded cockpit.

Lance threw his head back and laughed, having the time of his life. “Flying!”

“You are the worst pilot I’ve ever seen!” Keith shouted as Lance sent the lion into a loop-de-loop.

“AHHH!” added Aileen.

The lion came out of the maneuver with considerable ease, but only for Lance. Most of the cockpit’s occupants were left without a seat, causing the pilot’s exaggerated movements to jostle and smack everyone around like the worst pinball game imaginable. Aileen nearly ended up on the floor, trapped under the console. It was only determination, a death grip on Lance’s collar, and the tensile strength of his jacket that kept the blonde in her stolen seat. The lion accelerated, a blast from its engines threw the ship forward as Lance steered them through the rocky outcroppings and cliffs.

“What are you doing?” Ren demanded, grabbing ahold of the pilot’s seat and pulling herself closer. Over the top of the cadet’s head she had a clearer view out the windshield- eyes?- of the lion. Her stomach dropped. They were gaining altitude. “Where are we going?”

“Make it stop,” Hunk begged from somewhere behind her shoulder.”Make it stop!”

“I’m not doing anything.” Lance laughed, still the only one enjoying the situation. “It’s like this thing’s on auto-pilot. It’s amazing!”

Aileen’s head snapped up fast enough that Ren was almost certain she’d heard a crack. “What do you mean ‘auto-pilot’? I thought you were flying this stupid metal cat!”

The teenager tilted his head, nodding vaguely before looking down at the girl on his lap. “Well, it’s complicated. I can do this-” the lion swerved to the right. “-and this-” the lion swerved to the left, dipping slightly before rising again. “-but it seems to have a general idea of where it wants to go. It says there’s an alien ship in orbit. We’re probably supposed to stop it. Oh! And it doesn’t like being called a ‘stupid metal cat’, so maybe don’t do that?”

“What?” Aileen and Ren questioned in unison.

Pidge turned to stare incredulously at Lance. “What did it say _exactly_?”

“It’s not like it’s saying words,” Lance scoffed, reaching out and poking Pidge lightly on the side of the head. “More like it’s feeding ideas directly into my brain. Obviously.”

The former Tech Sergeant made a noise in the back of her throat, words temporarily failing her. Shiro and Keith turned, watching the woman with an expression halfway between confused and concerned.

“Okay, so,” Hunk interrupted, shuffling his way past Ren as best he could manage to face Lance. “If this is the weapon these guys are after why don't we like…” The engineer trailed off, gesturing as if he were handing off a package. “Give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone! Sorry, lion, nothing personal. I’m just attached to my...everything.”

“You don’t understand.” Shiro frowned, expression hard. “These monsters spread like a plague, destroying worlds. You can’t bargain with them. They won’t stop until everything is dead.”

“Oh,” Hunk said, sounding small. “So no, then. Never mind.”

“Wow,” Aileen said, sounding less and less thrilled. “Those are the exact last words I wanted to hear come out of your mouth, Shiro.”

The lion continued to climb with surprising speed now that Lance had stopped goofing off and sending the ship through unnecessary movements. It left the atmosphere in what seemed to be a small matter of minutes, sailing as effortlessly as a boat on calm seas. Several of the cadets gasped softly as the lion left the blue planet. There was something about the stars, about space that the simulations could never fully recreate.

“Ugh,” Ren shifted on her feet, eyes sweeping across the view outside of the lion. The mechanic frowned as if she were suddenly dealing with a lingering, unpleasant taste.

Keith took a tentative step away, as much as could be managed in the crowded cockpit. “You’re not going to get sick, too, are you?”

“Hey,” Hunk whined, leaning heavily against one of the walls. “I didn’t even get sick when Lance was doing those stupid loops.”

“No,” the mechanic interrupted, idly patting her pockets as she spoke. From one she produced a wrapped peppermint, handing it off to the ill-looking cadet before continuing. “I just...am not particularly fond of space.”

Lance arched an eyebrow, tipping his head back in a poor attempt to look at the former Tech Sergeant. “You work for a space exploration program.”

“Yes,” Ren offered blankly.

“You- you have a tattoo of the solar system on your arm!”

The brunette woman glanced down at the lines on her forearm, visible thanks to the wardrobe change and pushed up sleeves. “Would you look at that,” Ren commented as if the ink had miraculously appeared in the recent hours. “So I do.”

The teenager seemed unamused, hands leaving the controls as he made a wide gesture. “Hunk has no sense of adventure! You hate space! Is it an Engineering thing? Were you all lied to at orientation?”

“Ship.” Aileen interrupted. When the word didn’t seem to register with Lance the blonde reached up, yanking his head down and pointing out the windshield. “Ship! There’s a ship!”

The alien ship was larger than the blue lion, as dark as the void of space and glowing a sinister purple. It advanced slowly, exuding an aura of intimidation and purpose.

“They found me,” Shiro breathed, so low that Ren almost hadn’t heard it.

“They’re shooting at us!” Lance yelped, swinging the controls to maneuver the lion away from the dark ship’s lasers.

“Shoot back!” Both Ren and Aileen snapped, the blonde cadet scanning the controls for something remotely recognizable as weapons controls.

In the same instance Pidge shouted “We have to get it out of here!”

“I know what to do!” Lance insisted as the lion weaved through the laser fire. “I got this!”

The smallest cadet latched onto the side of the pilot’s seat like a lifeline, glasses knocked askew in a particularly haphazard dodge. “Be careful! This isn’t a simulator!”

Lance chuckled, the sound tinny and slightly off. “That’s good. I always crash the simulators.”

“On the plus side,” Ren spoke absently, hands closing tighter around the back of the pilot’s seat. “He can’t lose a wing if Big Blue here doesn’t have any to begin with.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Aileen yelped as the lion dropped to avoid another barrage of laser fire. “If we don’t start returning fire soon he won’t get the chance to crash us into anything. Their aim is getting better.”

Hunk groaned, looking sick again. “Why would you say that?”

“Oh!” Clarity passed over the teenaged pilot’s face, eyes flashing. For the first time since encountering the alien battleship Lance’s grin slid back onto his face, all easy confidence and swagger. “I do got this!”

Lance twisted the controls in a pattern neither Ren nor Aileen were familiar with. The lion roared, sound loud even in the cockpit, and a laser nearly as blue as the lion itself shot back at the ship. Several small explosions dances across the ship’s hull and the enemy laser fire stopped.

“That’s it?” Aileen sounded disappointed.

“That’s not going to slow them down.” Keith agreed, squinting as he tried to judge just how much damage the enemy ship had actually sustained.

“No, but they’ve stopped shooting at us for the moment.” Ren tapped the lion’s pilot on the head, actions less subtle than her words. “Maybe we should skeedaddle while we have the chance.”

Lance arched an eyebrow. “Skee- what?”

“ **MOVE**!” AIleen and Pidge clarified in unison, urgency in their voices.

The lion turned, a wide arc of movement that brought them concerningly close to the enemy ship. Before the mechanic could question how exactly that was leaving, she understood. The lion’s claws- and, really, for a giant alien robot they sure were dedicated to the feline details- cut through the dark ship’s hull with considerable ease, leaving a long path of destruction. Lance turned the controls, a burst of speed putting some distance between the blue lion and the huge purple ship.

Unfortunately, it was only moments before the battleship turned to pursue. Any attention these aliens might have had on Earth was now firmly focused on the lion and its occupants.

“They’re gaining on us!” Pidge’s voice cracked, earlier urgency only growing. “I don’t think we can out run them!”

“We’re more maneuverable,” Aileen reminded everyone. “Faster on the turns and pivots. They still won’t be able to hit us easily.”

“No, it’s weird. They’re not shooting at us anymore,” Lance frowned, fingers drumming against the controls. He fidgeted in his seat, as much as he could without sending the blonde on his lap onto the floor. “They’re just...chasing us. What gives? They didn’t have any problems before.”

“That’s...good, though, right?” Hunk glanced around at the other faces in the cockpit. The ambient blue lighting did nothing to soothe his quickly fraying nerves. “Because we don’t want them shooting at us, like at all. Not shooting is good.”

“Not shooting means we’re important.” Keith’s eyes narrowed as he tried to think, fingertips running across the line of his mouth. “It means they’ve decided they can’t risk destroying us.”

“Not us,” From the corner of her eye Ren could just see the blue light of the lion reflecting off Shiro’s prosthetic arm. She swallowed, dragging her attention away. “There’s no way they can know who’s piloting this thing. Moreover, sorry McClain, but I can’t imagine an upstart, unknown pilot mattering a great deal to an alien battleship.”

“Ouch,” the lion’s pilot gave an exaggerated wince. “Don’t hold back on my account, Tech Sarge.”

“What they want,” Ren continued. “Is the same as we thought before. The blue lion and whatever crazy vision you five saw in the cave.”

“Uh,” Aileen interrupted, pointing to the side of the lion’s viewport. “What planet is that? Where are we?”

The planet was blue, duller than the lion, and swirling with white. Asteroids clustered around the planet, stretching out as far as the eye could see in the inky darkness of space.

“The edge of the solar system.” Shiro breathed, something almost like reverence in his voice.

Ren’s fingers closed around her wrist, feeling the face of the watch press against her skin. “Kerberos.”

“It can’t be. It takes _months_ for our ships to get out this far.” Pidge blanched, eyes wide. “We got out here in minutes. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Uh, guys? You know what else shouldn’t be possible?” Hunk reached out, shaking the nearest person. Ren blinked, jarred from her thoughts as the engineering cadet bordered on open panic. “What is that? Seriously, what is that?”

“Uh,” Lance began, sounding sceptic. Fear was beginning to creep into his voice, either in response to his friend or the fact that the lion was steadily sailing closer to a literal portal to the unknown. “This may sound crazy- is probably crazy- but the lion? The lion wants us to go through there.”

“Do…” Pidge’s hands closed around backpack straps, watching Lance’s face. “Do you know where it goes?”

Lance swallowed thickly. “No. I don’t know where it goes. Shiro, you’re the senior officer here. What so we do?”

“Wouldn’t that be…?” Shiro turned as much as the cramped cockpit would allow, watching Ren over the top of Keith’s head.

The mechanic blinked, pausing in her attempts to pry Hunk’s hands from her shoulders. “Who, me?” Shiro nodded and she laughed, a short, clipped sound that did nothing to soothe anyone’s nerves. “Oh no, hell no. This is so far above my paygrade it’s ridiculous. I stopped knowing what was happening after we fell through that hole in the cave way back on Earth.”

“The lion knows better than us,” Shiro decided. If he was dwelling about how ridiculous that statement was, even with the context of their equally unbelievable situation, the pilot didn’t let on. “I say we trust it. But this isn’t my decision alone. We’re a team, we should decide together.”

“No.” Aileen said almost instantly. “No, no. Hell fucking no. I’m all for adventure in the desert, and pushing random buttons in a giant robot space lion. Hell, I’m fine with cat-and-mousing some kind of fucking alien battleship away from Earth! But that?” The blonde gestured at the glowing portal in front of them as if it had personally offended her. “That is some fantasy level bullshit and I want no part of it.”

“What?” Pidge looked over at Aileen. “Look where we are! And how fast we got here! This is something the Garrison could never even dream of and you want to just go home?”

The blonde clicked her tongue. “Don’t act like this is about exploration, Pidge. The most high risk thing you’ve ever explored was the cookie aisle at that sketchy Walmart.”

“Kids…” Ren warned, feeling a full scale argument threatening to break out. 

Aileen seemed to focus in on her cousin’s voice, turning around and half climbing over Lance to face the brunette woman. “Ren, be the voice of reason here. You don’t want to go through that thing, either, right?”

The former Tech Sergeant licked her lips, looking over the top of her cousin’s head at the steadily approaching portal. “Not particularly, no.”

“There, see!”

“But,” Ren turned her attention back to Aileen. There was a look in her eyes that the blonde cadet couldn’t place, determination and a decision already made. “I want answers.”

“This is all very interesting,” Lance began, leaning awkwardly around Aileen. “But I have something to add.”

Aileen looked down at the pilot, frowning. Something about his tone put her on edge, more so than the magic portal already had. “What?”

Lance coughed into a fist, rearranging his grip on the lion’s controls. His fingers danced across the control stick, grin returning, and Aileen knew regret.

Ren’s eyes widened, one arm reaching over to close around Keith’s jacket. The former Garrison cadet looked down at the hand, then over at the woman, unsure if she was trying to brace herself against Lance’s choices or shield them. “Don’t-!”

“YOLO!” 

The lion rocketed forward, diving headlong into the portal before any more arguments could be made. Aileen screamed, now clutching the back of the pilot’s seat for her life, unable to turn back around. Hunk screamed, actually lifting his former instructor off the ground. Keith grunted as half of his jacket was yanked higher, obstructing his vision.

Thankfully the trip through the portal lasted only seconds, though no one was likely to have survived it without bruises. Hunk groaned loud and long, thankfully dropping Ren before he turned and threw up in the corner. The mechanic’s knees buckled, free hand reaching out to steady herself on the back wall of the cockpit.

“What is wrong with you?” Keith asked, faltering almost as soon as the words left his mouth. “Uh…”

“That’s the twenty dollar question, innit, Kogane?” Ren steadied herself, finally releasing his jacket and smoothing out the wrinkles. She gave the jacket a single, absent minded pat before lowering her hand completely.

Keith’s eyebrows scrunched. “I thought the phrase was ‘million dollar question’?”

Ren scoffed. “Ain’t nobody got that kind of money. You okay, Garrett?” Hunk groaned again but held up a hand, fingers folded, thumb out. The woman nodded, turning her attention to the pilot’s seat. “Lee?”

“I’m going to kill you!” Aileen snarled, bringing her fists down on the blue lion’s pilot. Lance yelped, shielding himself with his arms and leaning as far from the blonde as he could manage.

“Lee, wait!” Pidge shouted, attempting to shove Lance away. The Comms. Tech was getting jostled and elbowed in Aileen’s attempts at vengeance. “He still has to fly this thing!”

“We have two other pilots.” Aileen insisted. “We’ll be fine. And he could have killed us!”

“If you’ll notice-” Lance grunted as Aileen landed a decent blow. “Ow- We’re fine!”

The mechanic licked her lips, needlessly pushing up the sleeves of her shirt as she readied herself to intervene. Ren bent down, hooking her arms under the blonde’s shoulders and hefting a struggling Aileen over the back of the pilot’s chair. Keith shuffled back as far as he could manage, avoiding the girl’s kicking legs.

“That’s enough.” Shiro said at the same moment Ren snapped “Cut it out!”

The blonde cadet stilled but not before kicking the pilot’s seat one last time for good measure. “He could have killed us!”

Ren lowered her cousin so that Aileen could stand on the little bit of room left for her in the cockpit, not fully releasing her until Ren was certain that she wouldn’t lunge for Lance again. “Maybe, but we’re fine-” Hunk groaned and the mechanic winced sympathetically. “Mostly fine. And since he’s the one flying this thing, you don’t get to kill him.”

“We have two other pilots,” Aileen muttered bitterly, arms crossed.

“Where are we?” Pidge spoke up, taking the chance to change the subject.

Shiro frowned, looking slowly around at the visible stars outside the lion. “I don’t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long way from home.”

“Wonderful,” Ren gave a single bark of laughter, pinching the bridge of her nose hard with her fingers. The sound ending nearly as quickly as it began. “That’s just...wonderful.”

Lance settled himself back at the controls, adjusting his jacket. “The lion seems to want to go to this planet.” He nodded his head to the Earth-like planet ahead of them. An odd look passed over his face, half smiling as the lion took on a burst of speed. “I think...I think it’s going home.”


	8. The Empress [Part Two]

The lion landed heavily in front of a castle, all impossibly high towers and glittering white. It looked both like a familiar fairytale and the alien uncertainty of space. As the lion approached the towers lit up, flashes of a blue more brilliant than the clear skies behind the towers. Big Blue, as the lion-ship had been so eloquently dubbed, came to a stop before what could only be assumed as the castle’s main entrance and lowered its head for the group to disembark.

“Alright,” Shiro spoke up as everyone shuffled outside. The sunlight was warm, the dust from the landing clouded the view of the surrounding area but it seemed remarkably picturesque. The proper scenery for the elegant white castle. “Keep your guard up, stick close. My crew was captured by aliens once. I’m not about to let it happen again.”

“Wow, okay,” Aileen frowned, glancing over at the older pilot. “You’re forbidden from speaking for the rest of this trip.”

Shiro turned his head to look down at the blonde, mirroring her frown. When he opened his mouth to speak she held up a hand.

“No. Forbidden. You always manage to find the last thing I want to hear and then say it.”

“Well,” Ren began, leaning backwards at a near-ridiculous angle as she tried to observe the castle before them. “He’s not wrong.”

The robotic lion rose then, straightening into an imposing figure even against the backdrop of a sunny sky. Hunk screamed, convinced it was about to eat them, Big Blue roared loud enough to shake the ground under their feet, and the door in front of them began to glow. The same pale blue light that had ignited in the towers traced an intricate pattern on the door, which slid open to reveal darkness.

“Oh,” Hunk recovered with impressive ease, though he seemed to be using Shiro as a shield. “The door’s open. That’s...great! Thanks, buddy. I guess I was wrong about you.” The engineering cadet made a motion as if to pat the giant robot feline’s leg, then decided against it.

“I guess that’s one way to lock a door,” Ren muttered, releasing her hold on her cousin and the back of Pidge’s shirt.

“I guess…” Pidge started slowly, squinting into the darkness of the castle’s interior. “We go inside?”

The main entrance hall was vast and assumed to be impressive, though it has difficult to be certain without a proper light source. The open door, though massive, only did so much to illuminate their path, especially the farther inside the group traveled.

“You know,” Pidge was the first to break the silence, “From the size of the lion I expected these stairs to be bigger.”

“They’re not for the lion,” Ren pointed out, looking around as she tried to get a feel for the room in the darkness.

Aileen gasped in quiet realization. “They’re for whoever was supposed to be piloting it! You think someone else is here?”

As if on cue the floor illuminated then, a different pattern alight on the floor, and a gentle wall of pale blue light surrounding them.

_“Hold,”_ an automated voice spoke from somewhere unseen. _“For identity scan.”_

“What?” Ren balked, fighting the urge to take a step back.

“Why are we here?” Shiro called out, though the voice gave no response. “What do you want from us?”

The pale blue light surrounding them faded and the room began to illuminate slowly. A single hallway came to light before the group, a path for them to follow through the expanse of the castle.

Aileen looked at the now pleasantly bright hallway with suspicion. “Well, that’s a-”

“Don’t.” The mechanic interrupted, nearly as soon as the blonde spoke up. “No more death flag, or horror movie, or dead in space.” Ren turned pointing at Aileen, then Hunk, then Lance who looked offended. “I mean it.”

The hallway was traveled in relative silence, the castle lights steadily illuminating the path before them. The only sounds were their footsteps, Hunk’s occasional call of ‘hello’, and the quiet click as the lights blinked into life ahead of them. Wherever the castle was leading them- and it had to be the castle itself navigating their path- it must have been in the heart of the castle.

“What is this place?” Lance asked as they finally reached their destination. He turned around slowly, trying to take in the room.

The castle lacked nothing in the way of space, the ceilings of this room almost needlessly high. What looked to be a terminal sat indented in the center of the room, surrounded by a circular design. A final ring of circles, large enough for a person to stand in ringed the edge of the design, almost mirroring the points of a clock.

Pidge stepped closer to the terminal, which glowed the same pale blue that everything in the castle seemed to use when activated. “Some sort of control room?”

A hiss broke the quiet as two of the person-sized circles opened, some sort of mechanical pod rising up from the floor with a puff of cold air and frost. The front seemed to have been designed to be clear glass but had long since frosted over, leaving only a silhouette of the occupants visible.

“Uh,” Aileen gaped, fingers twitching at her hip for a weapon that wasn’t there. “Can I say horror movie now?”

“Are these guys…” Hunk glanced around the room, trying to find something else to focus his attention on. “Dead?”

The entire front panel of the pod faded away into tiny points of light, as if it had never existed at all. Inside, eyes closed, was a young woman. Her hair tumbled gently over her shoulders and down her back, somehow mirroring the flow of her skirt. The strangest feature about her were the long, pointed ears and the pale pink markings under her eyes that didn’t appear to be makeup. Even still and prone there was an air of elegance about her, as clear as the circlet across her forehead. Here was the castle’s royalty.

“Uh?” repeated Aileen, more confusion in her voice. “Space elves?”

The woman’s eyes snapped open, though she didn’t seem to register the room. “Father!”

Distress colored her words and her face and she reached out, still lost to whatever event had sealed her away. She tumbled forward and Lance was the first to reach her, catching her in his arms with only a minimal amount of stumbling.

Their eyes met and the teenaged pilot’s grin turned doofier than usual. “Hello~.”

Behind Lance Aileen rolled her eyes and the Princess- Queen?- stared, finally registering the people before her. Lance continued to try to look suave.

“Who are you?” the alien royalty spoke slowly, eyes now scanning the room. “Where am I?”

“I’m Lance,” the teenager practically purred, smile sparkling. “And you’re right here in my arms.”

“Oh my god,” Aileen groaned, unable to contain herself. “That’s the worst line I’ve ever heard. Lance frowned at her over his shoulder.

“Your ears…” the woman said, confusion in her voice.

“Yeah?” Lance asked, equally confused as he turned his attention back to her.

“They’re hideous.” She took a step back, apparently offended and Lance bristled. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!”

Lance took a step forward, likely on reflex, and the alien woman pounced. She grabbed the teenager by the ear and twisted him around, free hand pinning an arm to his back and forcing Lance to his knees. The teenager squawked, surprised, but wasn’t able to do much about the hold. Ren would have been impressed, if Lance wasn’t someone she was responsible for.

“Who are you?” the Princess demanded, anger flaring. “What are you doing in my castle? Where is King Alfor? How did you get here?”

“I don’t know!” Lance exclaimed, attempting to squirm free. “A giant blue lion brought us here. We just got here!”

“How do you have the Blue Lion?” Something in the way she said the words made it sound as if ‘Blue Lion’ was its official title. “What happened to its Paladin?”

Ren tensed, though she had no idea what a Paladin was, but the woman finally released Lance before the mechanic could intervene. The alien straightened, watching the faces of the room’s occupants. Something seemed to click in her mind, pieces finally forming an answer to her questions.

“Unless,” the word left her lips in a quiet whisper, the alien royal turning to face the terminal in the center of the room. She reached it in two quick strides and it sprang to life at her touch, a screen appearing. “How long has it been?”

“Why don’t you tell us who you are?” Shiro offered slowly. “We don’t know what’s going on but maybe we can help.”

Aileen regarded the pilot as if he’d sprouted a second head. “Really?”

“My name is Princess Allura of planet Altea,” the Princess responded, though she didn’t look away from the screen before her. “I have to find out where we are and how long we’ve been asleep.”

The second pod opened, revealing an older man with an impressive mustache and hair so red it was nearly orange. He was dressed regally, though not quite matching the Princess. He also seemed to be more aware, instantly registering the unfamiliar faces around the room.

“Intruders!” He shouted, lunging for Lance who had the unfortunate luck of sanding too close. Ren stepper forward, arm out, bodily placing herself between the teenager and the man. The man paused, momentarily surprised, before straightening. “Oh-ho, so one of you wishes to face me head on, do you?”

“C’mon Ren,” Lance insisted from over her shoulder, leaning around her in an attempt to better watch the second alien. “I can take him!”

“You think so, do you?” The man didn’t miss a beat, reaching up to twist the end of his mustache as he observed the teenager. “I’ll have you know that if it wasn’t for the lady’s intervening I would have had you in a headlock and unconscious by a three-count.”

“Nu-uh,” Lance insisted, sounding remarkably like he was arguing dibs with a sibling. “Because I would have done this-” He made some ridiculous gesture that might have been referencing a kung-fu move, “- and kicked you in the face.”

“You know what,” Ren sighed, dropping her arm and stepping away from the two. “You guys go ahead.”

The two continued to bicker amongst themselves for several moments longer, complete with gestures and sound effects. It wasn’t until the Princess gasped, hand to her mouth, that they stopped. The man’s attention snapped immediately to her, crossing the distance between them in an instant.

“Princess?”

“It can’t be,” Allura breathed, eyes wide. “We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years!”

The words hung in the air, heavy and awkward. Several of the humans shifted, trying to process this information. From the look on the Princess’ face the length of time hadn’t been intentional, but the scale was so large it was difficult to process. The words that followed were heavier still.

“Planet Altea,” Allura’s voice shook under the weight of her emotions. “And all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, father is gone. Everything is gone.” She took a shaky breath to steady herself, but what flashed across her face was not grief but anger. “Zarkon.” The Princess spat the name like a curse.

“Zarkon?” Aileen repeated, even as Shiro gasped.

“He is a vile creature,” Allura explained, nothing but contempt in her voice. “The Emperor of the Galra and an enemy to all free people.”

“I know,” Shiro said, almost as if the words surprised even himself. “I remember, I was his prisoner.”

“He’s still alive?” Both Ren and the Princess asked, one holding more surprise that the other. Allura seemed shaken, but focused now that her emotions had a target.

“I can’t explain it,” the pilot answered, expression intense. “But he’s searching for a super weapon. Something called the Voltron. He won’t stop until he finds it.”

The Princess didn’t seem surprised by that, though her eyes narrowed and her mouth was a thin line. “He’s searching because he knows it’s the only thing that can defeat him. And that’s exactly why we must find it first.”

An alarm blared, the screen in front of the Princess flashing red. A new window appeared showing a dark battleship concerningly similar to the one the humans had seen close to Earth. What could only be a warning flashed across the screen.

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Coran exclaimed, explaining the warning.

“How did they find us?” Allura demanded, though no one had an answer for her.

“I suspect,” Lance began, sounding serious. “That it’s Keith’s fault.”

The boy in the red jacket scoffed, largely unphased on the surface. “Say what you need to say to make yourself feel better.” The calm demeanor lasted only a heartbeat and Keith turned to face the other pilot, irritation in his voice. “After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!”

Sensing a challenge, Lance leaned in, no doubt trying to be intimidating. “I’ll stick you in a wormhole!”

“Stow it, cadets.” Shiro put an arm between the two, physically separating them. “This is no time to place blame, it’s time to work together as a team.”

Aileen leaned over to her cousin, only stage whispering as she spoke, “So no pressure or anything. It’s not like those two are oil and water.”

If Shiro heard the blonde he chose to ignore it, instead turning to face Coran. “How much time until they get here?”

The Royal Advisor considered the question, looking as if he were doing some quick mental math. “At their speed? About three days?”

“Good,” Allura frowned, though her face was determined. “Let them come. By the time they come you five will have re-formed Voltron, and together we will destroy Zarkon’s empire.”

“Seven.” Aileen piped up. “There’s seven of us.”

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed, “But it sounds like there are only five lions, so only five of us will be able to form the Voltron thing?”

The blonde hummed, hands on her hips, but said nothing else.

Shiro stepped forward, focus set on the issue before them. “Princess, there are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?”

Allura smiled.

“King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura’s life force,” Coran explained as everyone moved to the Navigation Deck. The last of the Altean royal line stood beneath a giant crystal suspended in the ceiling, surrounded by pale blue light. “She alone is the key to their whereabouts.”

The light surrounding Allura scattered, a million points of light displaying distant planets and stars. Small window screens floated past, displaying information and several varying images of lions.

“These are coordinates!” Pidge realized, leaning closer as one of the screens passed. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

Coran grinned, patting the smaller cadet lightly atop the head. “Look at your primitive little brain firing away on all cylinders. Good job!”

“Very observant,” Allura amended. “That’s because the Black Lion is within the castle.”

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands King Alfor locked it in the castle.” Coran explained, watching as the screen showing the Black Lion passed. “It can only be freed with the other four lions present.”

“Now,” Allura began, “As you’ve found the Lions choose their pilots. It is a sacred and mystic bond that cannot be forced. The Quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in that of the Lion. Together they form something greater than science can explain.”

“Space magic?” Aileen arched an eyebrow. “We’re doing space magic now?”

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron,” Allura continued, pushing the image of the Lion towards the group. “It will take a pilot who is a born leader, always in control, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.”

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality.” The Princess swiped her hand and a different display screen came to rest in front of Pidge. “It needs a pilot of intellect and daring.”

“The Blue Lion-”

“Oh, hold up, I got this.” Lance interrupted, winking as he spoke. “The Blue Lion takes the best pilot of the bunch, right? The best looking? The-”

“The Yellow Lion,” Allura spoke up, struggling to keep her expression free of annoyance. “Is caring and kind. Its pilot is one that puts the needs of others before his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron you will lift the team up, supporting them and holding them together.”

Hunk paused, glancing behind him as if expecting to find someone else there. Finding no one he looked back, pointing to himself and making a confused noise.

“The Red Lion,” Allura’s last display screen appeared in front of Keith. “Is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion’s coordinates yet. My apologies, Keith. There must be something wrong with the castle.”

“Well,” Ren muttered, leaning closer to her cousin as Coran explained his plans for castle repairs. “It’s a good thing they’re all color coded.” The mechanic doubted that was the basis for Allura’s choices, but Ren couldn’t deny the coincidence.

That had been the wrong thing to say. Something flashed in the blonde cadet’s eyes, Aileen straightening and focus returned anew to the Princess and her holograms.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, eyebrows knitting together. “She isn’t considering us at all.”

“Lee, no,” the mechanic hissed and made a grab for her cousin’s shirt. Aileen was already out of reach, pushing herself between Lance and Keith.

“Yeah, hi, excuse me.” Aileen placed her hands on her hips, staring down the Princess despite Allura being taller. “I think you’re forgetting about a few people for your mystic lion lottery. Ren and I are just as capable as everyone else, thanks. So how’s about you don’t ignore us, huh, Space Zelda?”

Allura arched an eyebrow, visibly confused at the name, and Ren took the chance to step into the huddle as well. “Woah there, firecracker. Put out that fuse. I think you’re forgetting one thing: We can’t fly.”

The blonde was undeterred, frowning at her cousin. “Neither can Hunk and Pidge. They’re still up for consideration.” She turned to face the Altean Princess again. “Are you telling me that our Mystical Space Aura-”

“Quintessence,” Allura and Shiro provided in unison.

“Yes,” Aileen made a motion as if to roll her eyes but thought better of it. “That. Are you telling me that our Quintessence doesn’t match anything? You said the bond can’t be forced but here you go deciding things all on your own.”

“Well,” the Princess paused, pressing her fingers to her lips in thought. “I wouldn’t say that. However it’s highly unusual for there to be multiple candidates for the Lions. There is hardly protocol. Under better circumstances I suppose we would simply let the Lions decide but there’s hardly-”

“That’s all I want,” Aileen said quickly. “A chance. I know we’re in a hurry and I know this is important, but I can’t just stand idly by when I know I can do just as good. Don’t overlook me just because I’m not-” the blonde paused for half a heartbeat, glancing over her shoulder for Pidge. “-Not a boy. Right, Ren?”

“Uh, no?” the brunette shook her head, mouth a thin line. “I understand what you’re saying, and the point’s fine and all, but no. I’ll stay here and help Nigel Thornberry fix the place, thanks.” Ren jerked a thumb in the direction of the self-proclaimed ‘Coranic’. “I want no part of Cosmic Pat-the-kitty.”

“Pat the-?” Lance repeated, leaning closer and looking between the two. Aileen reached over, focus still on her cousin, and pushed his face away.

“You-!” Aileen began, stopping to drop her voice to a conspiratory whisper. “You were dating a pilot. Didn't you learn anything?”

“Yes,” Ren hissed back, irritation coloring her words. “I learned how to keep my feet on the ground. This isn’t even a ship I know my way around, this is an entirely different animal. Literally.”

“You're scared,” Aileen said slowly, almost as if she couldn't believe it. “You don't even want to try because you're scared. What about courage, Ren?”

“Of course I'm scared, Aileen!” Ren snapped, loud enough to startle the others. The mechanic made a wide, sweeping gesture nearly knocking into the holographic displays. “Look where we are! Look at what's happening! This is already so much bigger than Kerberos. How can I not be scared?”

The blonde’s eyes narrowed, mouth drawn into a thin line. “This isn’t something you can shield us from, Ren. Especially when you don’t even want to step up yourself.”

“That’s enough!” The Princess interrupted, quite literally putting her foot down. “In case you have both forgotten there is a Galra battleship on its way to destroy us at this very moment. Without the Lions- without Voltron we are defenseless. Five Paladins, five Lions. As soon as possible.” Allura’s head turned to regard the mechanic, gaze steel and fire. “Can you at least agree to that?”

Ren chewed at her bottom lip, hesitating momentarily before speaking. “The other option is death?”

“The other option is death,” Allura repeated, deadpan at needing to repeat the fact.

“Then I have to be,” the brunette rolled her shoulders, sliding back into her usual attitude. “Can you agree to letting me assist your…” Ren paused, glancing at Coran as she searched for the proper term. “Aide with repairs to the castle defenses? I’m assuming there are defenses.”

“Oh, yes,” Coran beamed, twisting his mustache as he spoke. “Several, in fact. The most urgent one to restore being-”

“Actually,” Pidge interrupted. “I was hoping Ren could...come with me?”

“Uh?” said Ren, very intelligibly, as Pidge took ahold of her arm. “What?”

“Please?” The smaller brunette looked up with wide eyes, glasses sparkling.

The mechanic frowned, taking a step back. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Who taught you that?”

“Please?” Pidge repeated and Ren sighed, defeated.

The woman ran a hand through her hair, looking back to Allura. “So, just for clarification here, Pidge absolutely has to try and drive the Jolly Green Lionmobile?”

“I mean this in the best possible way,” Allura replied, tone verging on annoyance and urgency. “But you wouldn’t be able to pilot the Green Lion even if we needed you to.”

“Fair enough,” Ren agreed, holding up her free hand. “I probably deserved that.”

The group separated then, breaking off into the Yellow and Green recovery teams with Keith and Aileen remaining behind. Lance and Hunk took the Blue Lion, leaving Pidge, Ren, and Shiro with a small ship from the castle. Ren tried very hard not to think how the thing had been sitting idle and unmaintained for ten thousand years.

_“We can only keep the wormholes to the other Lions open for two of your Earth hours,”_ Coran’s voice explained over the intercom. _“The good news is, according to my readings both planets are relatively peaceful. They seem to be good places to spend the rest of your days if you end up stranded! Try to hurry back though.”_

“I’m sorry, what?” Ren demanded, leaning closer to the speaker.

_“Enjoy the trip!”_ was the last thing Coran said before the portal flashed and the two groups disappeared beyond them.

The planet hiding the Green Lion looked like if a houseplant had been left unsupervised with enough water and sunlight to grow rampant for years; only the houseplant was rainforest. Plants covered every visible surface, hardly leaving a clear path to walk. Trees towered in the distance, obscuring line of sight, with vines dangling from branches or wrapping around trunks. Unidentifiable birds could be heard in the distance, hidden by leaves. The sunlight was warm but the excess moisture in the air made everything sticky and uncomfortable.

The trio had been traveling in silence since they landed, Pidge following the tracker from the Altean ship. Before long the trees and overgrowth parted, revealing something that could almost be a beach. The water before them wasn’t large enough to be an ocean, but it was quite wide for a river. 

Pidge frowned as they reached the waterline, looking around for some means of passage. An intricately carved wooden boat rested on the shore a few feet from them. “Oh, there!”

Nearly as soon as the statement left Pidge’s mouth an alien appeared, seemingly from nowhere. It was large, towering over even Shiro. It looked similar to a sloth, fur colored to blend in with the surrounding trees and perhaps growing moss. It turned to regard the humans, chittering.

Pidge screamed in alarm, literally scrambling onto Shiro’s shoulders. The man struggled, not wanting to dislodge Pidge but unsure of how to react to the sudden appearance of the large animal. Ren screamed, though the sound was cut short as the mechanic snapped her mouth shut, one hand reaching down to her toolbelt. On sheer reflex alone the brunette drew her screwdriver, pointing it at the giant alien sloth.

“Uh, what’re you going to do with that, Ren?” Pidge asked when it became obvious the creature wasn’t going to hurt them.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, watching as the sloth lumbered away from the humans and towards the boat. “I panicked.”

The sloth alien turned back, waving the humans over to the boat. Pidge hopped down from Shiro’s shoulders, watching quizzically.

“I think...he wants us to get in his canoe.”

“Then I guess we should go,” Shiro shrugged, earning him a look from his two companions. He laughed, the sound only a little strained around the edges. “I’ve been locked up by hostile aliens for a year. This is nothing.”

He reached out, patting Pidge’s shoulder as he passed, and strolling to the wooden boat with an easy sort of confidence that wouldn’t be out of place on Lance. It was clear the pilot saw nothing wrong with allowing the giant sloth to take them to parts unknown.

When it became obvious the mechanic had made no move to follow them, he turned back, eyebrow raised. “Ser?”

“I don’t want to get in the giant space sloth’s boat, Shiro,” she replied, acutely aware of how ridiculous her statement sounded.

The pilot grinned. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

Ren had to bite her tongue to keep from responding, even as she stepped towards the boat.

The boat ride, to its credit, was remarkably relaxing. Even when other aliens emerged from the treeline, looking like rabbit and centipede hybrids. They were surprisingly cute, with their sunny fur and tiny, waving paws. They chirped a happy song as the boat sailed past.

“I know the Princess said this was supposed to be my Lion, but what if she’s wrong?” Pidge worried as the wooden boat carried them closer to their destination. “I mean, she’s probably not wrong. The castle had to have scanned us for something, but I’m not a pilot! I mean I always wanted to be, but Ren is right! You have to know how to fly to be able to pilot something! What if I get in there and it doesn’t respond? What if I can’t reach the pedals? What if there aren’t any pedals!”

“You’re rambling,” Shiro pointed out, fondness in his voice. 

Ren nodded, making the hand gesture for ‘a little bit’. “I mean, nothing wrong with getting your thoughts out there, but try to breathe between them, yeah?”

“But-!”

“Listen, our Commander on the Kerberos mission was the smartest man I’ve ever met,” Shiro continued, smiling. “He had this saying he would always use. If you-”

“If you’re too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss the chance to do something great.” Pidge and Ren quoted in unison, the smaller brunette smiling.

The pilot chuckled, nodding. “How’d you know?”

“The one bit you never listened to, huh, Ren?” Pidge elbowed the older woman, who frowned.

“Don’t turn this around on me.” Ren sighed, briefly closing her eyes before reaching out and taking the cadet by the cheeks. “Look, full disclosure? I want nothing more than for you to be back home, where it’s safe. But that isn’t possible and this isn’t a burden I can take from you. I mean, not for lack of trying but it’s a little hard to argue with ‘not even if we needed you to’.” Pidge grinned and the mechanic stuck her tongue out in response, turning one hand to pinch the smaller brunette’s cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in you. You’ve already done one thing everyone believed impossible.”

The boat pulled to shore in front of what might have been a temple an unknown number of years before. It was completely overgrown with tree roots, only the stairs still visible. The wood was so ancient than new life was beginning to grow from it, moss and small plants taking root. Everything smelled like good, rich dirt and growing plant life.

“Well,” Ren said, ruffling her fingers into Pidge’s hair before pulling her hands away. “That’s your stop, kid.”

“Go,” Shiro insisted as the lion carvings around the temple lit up with green light. “Be great.”

Pidge grinned, a more confident expression than Ren remembered seeing in a long time, before taking the stairs two at a time. It wasn’t long before the small cadet had nearly disappeared from sight, practically hidden by the tree roots.

“We have time,” Shiro began, watching the mechanic from the corner of his eye. “If you want to talk.”

Ren hummed, tipping her head back as she thought. “The humidity is making my hair curl and I'm still a little iffy on the centipede rabbits.”

“That's not what I meant.” Shiro gave the woman a look. He was starting to realize that getting a straight answer from her was no simple task. “I meant about earlier, with your cousin.”

The mechanic shuffled her weight between her feet, trying to keep her legs from getting stiff. “No?”

Shiro frowned, crossing his arms across his chest. “You can't expect us to ignore it. Isn't it better to talk about it while there's a chance?”

“I mean, yeah I can,” Ren muttered, one hand rubbing at the back of her neck. “I think the cadets would rather just ignore it and avoid the whole awkward situation.”

The pilot said nothing in response but Ren recognized the look on his face. Somehow that was almost worse; to see something so familiar on the face of a man that could almost be a stranger. It wasn’t something the brunette could fully wrap her mind around, how he both was and wasn’t the man she loved.

Ren let the thought drop, the hand moving to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I said it, didn't I? I'm scared.”

“You mentioned Kerberos.”

“Okay, no.” The mechanic said quickly, words sharp. The hand dropped from her face, making a gesture as if to cut herself free from the topic. “We’re not going there. It wasn’t any fun for you and it wasn’t all cake and confetti back home. I’d rather focus on the bigger issues, thanks.”

Shiro was quiet for a moment, the only sound from the river they had arrived on and the rustle of leaves. “You’re worried something will go wrong.”

“What can I say?” The brunette shrugged her shoulders, curling her fingers around the width of her belt. “I'm a pessimist.”

The pilot arched an eyebrow, crossing his arms as he leaned against the pillar behind him. “I might have holes in my memory, but you can't expect me to believe that. Not Serenity Ripley.”

It was Ren’s turn to raise an eyebrow, look skeptic. “That you remember?”

Shiro smiled, the expression starting to look more natural on him, more familiar. It made her chest ache. “You made an impression.”

“Oh no! No, no.” Ren snorted. The corners of her mouth twitched as the mechanic struggled to not smile. “You don't get to use that line when you wanted to introduce yourself earlier.”

A lion’s roar echoed through the temple grounds, shaking everything. Both adults stumbled, struggling to keep their footing as the Green Lion burst free from the tree roots that had confined it for centuries. There was something undeniably regal in the look of it.

“Would you look at that,” Ren mumbled to no one in particular. “You did just fine, kiddo.”

Lance and Hunk were the last to return to the castle, both walking into the navigation deck as if they had been rattled around. Lance groaned, attempting to roll the stiffness from his shoulders as he walked.

“Uugh,” the Blue Lion’s pilot groaned. “That was terrible. I didn’t think we’d make it back! I thought I was going to barf. I felt like Hunk!”

“Yeah,” Hunk grunted, looking sour. “Think how I felt. I am Hunk!”

“We had a hard time, too,” Pidge said, grin doing nothing to back up the statement.

“Have we found the Red Lion yet?” Shiro wondered, turning his attention the the Princess and her Advisor.

“Oh, shit, get this.” Aileen began, only to be interrupted as Coran stepped forward.

“A bit of good news and bad news,” the Altean explained, twisting his mustache. “The good news is the Red Lion is close by! The bad news is it’s on the Galra ship now orbiting Arus.” Coran snapped his fingers. “Good news again! We’re Arus!”

“How is that good news?!” Ren demanded, fingers curling as if she were fighting the urge to shake the man.

“What happened to three days?” Lance yelped, a bead of sweat sliding down his cheek. “I thought we still had time.”

Coran looked sheepish. “Finger counting is more of an art, really, than a science.”

“You were finger-” Ren snapped her mouth shut, forcing herself to take a deep breath as she wrestled with her anger. “Now what. What happens now?”

A giant screen flickered before them, blocking out the view of the sky. Displayed before them was the sternest looking purple cat Ren had ever seen. One eye had been lost, replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, or he had a preference for ridiculous monocles.

“That, apparently, happens,” Aileen commented. Her cousin was not amused.

“Princess Allura,” the cat spoke, voice a threatening rumble. “I am Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the known universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me or I will destroy your planet.”

Warning given, the screen disappeared from sight leaving the room heavy under the promise of destruction.

Shiro was the first to speak up. “Let’s not panic.”

“How can we not panic?!” Hunk balked, looking completely frazzled. “The scary purple alien cat is driving his battleship straight for us. We only have four Lions.”

“Three,” Pidge reminded him. “Technically we only have three working Lions.”

“Yes, thanks you, Pidge,” Hunk looked less than pleased to hear that correction but he patted Pidge’s shoulder nonetheless. “Three working Lions and a castle that’s, let’s be honest here, calling it ancient is being generous. Now is the perfect time to panic!”

“Wait,” Allura interrupted. “This castle has a Particle Barrier we can activate!”

“Girl,” Lance all but purred, completely destroying the urgency of the situation. “You’ve already activated my-”

“Do not,” Ren hissed at the same moment Shiro frowned “Lance.”

The teenager deflated, sulking, but didn’t argue.

A display of the approaching battleship appeared before them, the large weapon near the helm flashing red.

“Our Particle Barrier won’t hold Sendak’s Ion Cannon forever,” Coran frowned, rubbing his chin in thought. “Galra weapons must have advanced since we fought them last.”

Aileen stared hard, clearly agape at the fact Coran seemed surprised. “You think? It’s not like-” The blonde swallowed, just stopping herself from continuing that thought. “Of course they’ve advanced. It’s been centuries. Can we counter?”

“Not on this time limit.” It was Ren’s turn to frown, the mechanic running her fingers through her hair. “And we’d need some of that tech to know how to calibrate the barrier to withstand the blast.”

“Can we panic now?” Hunk asked, jittery.

“No,” Shiro spoke clearly, aiming to put a stop to any rising panic. “We just need to figure out our plan of action.” It might have worked, if the next words hadn’t left his mouth. “And figure it out quickly.”

“I say we leave through a wormhole and live to fight another day,” Lance volunteered.

“Yes,” Hunk said quickly. “I second that. I mean, we tried. We gave it the ol’ college try. We only found three lions, and we can’t form Voltron.” He paused, squinting as he thought. “We could form, like, a snake I guess? Or a worm! To go through that hole, yeah?”

“Then it’s settled,” Lance puffed up, crossing his arms.

Ren shook her head. “No. No, it’s not decided.”

“We can’t just abandon Arus!” Pidge spoke up, voice sharp at the very thought. “The Galra will keep destroying planets and taking prisoners until we stop them. There has to be people here, they don’t deserve that!”

“Oh, but!” Hunk said, twisting his fingers in an attempt to disperse some of his nervous energy. “What if we leave and they follow us and leave this planet alone like with Earth?”

“Did they leave Earth alone?” Aileen wondered, though she had the decency to actually whisper this question to only her cousin.

“Not now,” Ren hissed, unable to give a proper answer.

“Sendak could destroy this planet anyway,” Keith pointed out, speaking up for the first time. “Staying is our only option.”

“Oh, here’s an option!” Lance countered, pouncing on the opportunity like a kid on free candy. “Shut your quiznak, Keith!”

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly!” Keith responded, voice raised.

“What do you know, mullet?!”

“We’re staying!”

Things started deteriorating from that point, the teenagers quick to argue their own points. Soon the conversation, if it could still be called that, was little more than a jumbled mess of people trying to talk over one another.

“Enough!” Shiro shouted, loud enough to startle the bickering teenagers into silence. “Princess, these are your lions. You’ve dealt with the Galra Empire before, you know what we’re facing better than any of us. It’s your call to make.”

Allura hesitated, looking lost for the first time since leaving her cryogenic sleep. “I don’t...I don’t know.”

“Perhaps,” Coran began slowly, looking at the Princess with an unreadable expression. It didn’t stay long enough to name the swirl of emotions. “Your father can help.”

“I’m sorry,” Ren interrupted, stepping forward. “I’m sorry, what?”

The Alteans didn’t answer. Instead Coran took the Princess gently by the elbow, leading Allura away from the navigation bay into an unknown room deeper in the castle.

“Soo, alien seance, then?” Aileen offered after the door shut, rocking back on the heels of her feet as she spoke.

When Allura returned so had her earlier determination. Whatever unexplained thing she had done to commune with her father had brought the fire back into her eyes. The Princess carried herself with confidence. It was infectious, the mood of the room already beginning to shift.

“You were brought here for a reason,” Allura spoke, electricity in her words. “Five of you were meant to pilot the Voltron Lions, and you alone. We must fight. We must keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. This is the destiny before us. A destiny you will rise to meet. Voltron is the universe’s only hope. We are the universe’s only hope.”

The Princess lead the group another room, different than the one she had disappeared into before. This room must have been the Armory, though it only contained five color-coded suits of armor.

“Well, that’s...disappointing,” Aileen muttered as Allura explained the Paladin armor. “Oh! Excuse me, I’m still a candidate for the Red Lion, aren’t I?”

“We didn’t forget,” Coran responded, sliding over to the blonde. He presented to her a folded flight suit, similar to the one Allura was now wearing. “One of the Princess’ spares. It’s quite uncommon for anyone not of or employed by the royal family to wear their colors. It’s quite the honor!”

“Hey, Keith!” Aileen called, nodding her thanks to Coran as she took the fight suit. “I’ll arm wrestle you for the Paladin armor. You’d look good in pink!”

Keith didn’t find the offer nearly as amusing as Lance, who spent several minutes laughing at the thought. In fact, the Blue Paladin was the last to fully change, heard snickering to himself and occasionally dropping bits of his armor. Once everything was said and done, the five standing together in their armor, the cut an impressive figure. They certainly looked the part of heroes, at the very least.

“I have some concerns,” Ren spoke, holding up a finger as Allura prepared what would be the Paladins’ weapons. “Because that started out, like, twice the size of Pidge and half as broad as Hunk. Does it stretch? Armor shouldn’t stretch.”

“The Bayard,” Allura gestured to the weapons on the table before her. “Is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron. It takes a unique shape, best suited for its wielder.”

“Okay, fine,” the mechanic mumbled, crossing her arms across her chest. “I don’t want to fucking learn or anything.”

Beside her Aileen snickered. “It’s okay, Ren, I’ll try to bring you back an extra one of those Galra guns for you to tinker with. I mean, I’m assuming they have handheld weapons too.”

“Not going to lie,” Ren admitted, looking wistful. “I’d really like to get my hands on that cannon.”

“Oh, I know!” Aileen bounced lightly in place, grinning as she thought. “We could mount it on the front of the castle, with enough room for it to pivot. Then it won’t matter if our stupid particle barrier won’t come up.”

Allura stared for a moment in what might have been fear or fascination, slowly turning to face the Black Paladin. “I’m sorry, Shiro, but the Black Bayard was lost with its Paladin.”

The pilot shrugged, remarkably calm about facing the situation unarmed. “I’ll manage somehow.”

Once back in the navigation bay Allura brought the diagram of Sendak’s battleship to view once again. The cannon at the helm still a red beacon of warning. Ren couldn’t read the words on the screen but it was easy to tell that thing would pack a punch, barrier or no barrier.

“You’ll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship,” Allura began. “That is our main priority.”

“That’s an awfully big ship,” Keith pointed out. “How will we know where to find it?”

“It’s not about really about ‘we’, it’s about ‘you’.” Hunk said before turning to gesture to Aileen. “Or you. Once you’re in there one of you will be able to like, feel its presence and sense its location.”

“Yeah,” Lance nodded. “It’s like that crazy energy you said you felt in the desert.”

Keith arched an eyebrow, expression otherwise deadpan. “The one you made fun of me for?”

Lance laughed, patting Keith a little too hard on the back. “Yeah, that! I’m still proud of that, by the by. But! It turns out it’s exactly like that mumbo-jumbo.”

“So nothing is science anymore,” Aileen said, looking as if she were trying to decide on if she wanted to laugh. “Space magic it is.”

“Remember,” the Princess warned, looking between the two potential pilots. “The Red Lion is extremely temperamental. One of you must earn its respect.”

If there was any sort of deity guiding luck in space, it must have been smiling on them. The plan seemed to be unfolding exactly as it had been discussed. Lance and Hunk ran decoy, with surprising success, as Pidge brought the Green Lion to the underside of the battleship.

“Well,” Aileen said as her group entered the Galra battleship. “They certainly have an aesthetic going on.”

The entire ship seemed to be crafted from dark iron, lit in a similar style as the Altean castle except the lamps emitted a purple glow. There was no extra crafting or intricate designs, nothing to muffle their footsteps as they moved through the halls. Utilitarian, Spartan. Generally unenjoyable and enough to put the blonde on edge. It was like nothing lived inside the walls of this ship.

“I’ve been here before,” Shiro realized, lingering at a crossroads. His eyes were far away, even as his head turned to follow one of the branching hallways. “After the Galra cruiser picked us up on Kerberos. They brought us here.”

“This exact ship?” Aileen wondered. “Or do they all look alike?”

“So, wait,” Pidge’s mind was beginning to turn, something like hope edging into the words. “There might be other prisoners here. The rest of the crew! We have to rescue them!”

Shiro clenched his jaw, shoulders going stiff and straight. “There’s no time. We have to get the Red Lion and go back to Arus.”

Pidge bristled, not hearing the expected response. “We can’t just leave! What do you mean leave?! That’s your crew! There are innocent prisoners here!”

“I understand that,” Shiro said quietly, his posture dropping slightly as he moved over to the smaller Paladin. “Better than anyone. But in war we have to be willing to make the hard choices. Now let’s get moving.”

The Green Paladin took a step back. Then another, putting distance between them. Pidge had puffed up, looking like a cornered animal ready to attack and run. “No! Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were on the Kerberos mission with you. I’m not leaving when I’m this close. Not when they could be here!”

“This may be a conflict of interest,” Aileen spoke up in the brief silence that followed Pidge’s exclamation. “But if we have enough people to complete the objective and rescue prisoners, then shouldn’t we? Once Keith and I find the Red Lion all of their attention will be on us anyway, it should be easy to sneak prisoners out.”

Shiro frowned. “You want to draw enemy attention to yourselves?”

The blonde sniffed, placing her hands on her hips and straightening to her full height to meet the pilot’s eyes. “Are you telling me you’re the sort of person that leaves their crew behind, Shirogane?”

In that moment the cadet reminded him of someone, though Shiro couldn’t say who that was. “I remember where the prisoners are held. I’ll go with Pidge. Keith, Aileen, find that Red Lion.”

“Alone?” Keith questioned, voice remarkably timid.

“You’ll be fine,” Shiro insisted, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “And remember patience yields focus.”

Aileen knocked her elbow against the teenager, grinning. “I don’t know about that, but I do have half an idea about where I’d keep enemy weaponry if I were an evil purple cat.”

The two groups split off, narrowly avoiding a guard patrol. Aileen and Keith disappeared into the twisting hallways of the battleship. She could remember the diagram of the Galra ship, had a general direction to head in, but the uniform walls and purple lights made navigation a nightmare.

“Seriously?!” Keith half-snarled as they passed the same emblem for the third time. The red armored teenager dragged a hand down his face. “This isn’t working.”

“Well, Mr. Desert Hobo, do you feel any weird energy?” Aileen snapped back. “Because we don’t have a whole lot of options.”

Keith froze, turning wide-eyed to face a hallway. “Actually…”

Aileen squinted in disbelief. “Wait, seriously?”

The Garrison dropout didn’t pause to answer her, instead turning on his heel to sprint off.

“Hey!!”

The Red Lion was held in what appeared to be some sort of flight hangar. No other ships were visible, but this was a war prize. The Red Lion itself was still dormant, surrounded by a barrier similar to the one that had been around Big Blue in the cave.

Keith was the first to reach the sleeping Lion, knocking a fist against the barrier. The sound echoed dully through the room. “Hey, wake up.”

There was no response.

Keith frowned and tried again. “It’s me, Keith. Your buddy. Open up. Hey, it’s me, Ke- I AM YOUR PALADIN. I’M BONDING WITH YOU.”

“You've,” Aileen began from behind Keith’s shoulder. He wasn't sure that he cared for her tone of voice. “You've never even touched a cat before, have you?”

The armor clad teenager turned his head, glowering in the red light of the Lion’s barrier. “I don't see you trying anything.”

“Okay,” the blonde tipped her head in a quick nod. “But yelling that you're bonding is not how you actually bond with much. Is that how it works with you? If I yell at you will we bond?”

Keith opened his mouth to retort, then snapped it shut to consider. “Is that a serious question?”

“Maybe a little,” Aileen admitted with a shrug. She had meant it as a joke, a snappy moment to vent her frustrations, but Keith seemed more perturbed by it than anything. “This is the longest conversation we've ever had.”

“No, it's not?”

The door to the storage bay slid open, several Galra sentries filed in with weapons drawn. Keith’s shield flashed into life, just in time to block the barrage of laser fire.

“I’m going to need a weapon,” Aileen frowned at her empty hands, glancing over at the pilot beside her. “Hey, flyboy, wanna cover me?”

For a moment Keith looked as if he might argue, but the onslaught wasn’t letting up. They would need to either move or accept being shot. The Paladin nodded and drew his Bayard.

Aileen claimed a gun for herself with relative ease, snatching it from the prone body of a sentry cut in half by Keith. There were a few moments of stumbling orientation- the weapon heavier than she had anticipated- but a gun at it’s most basic was point and shoot. A second wave of sentries entered the hangar as the first fell and the blonde tsked, sensing no end. She turned, firing at the door until it slid closed, snapping one of the enemy robots clean in half.

“We’re outnumbered!” Aileen called over her shoulder. Keith was a fighter but still unfamiliar with combat. Unless something changed they would be overwhelmed.

“Brace yourself!” Keith shouted back, the visor of his Paladin helmet snapping closed. Aileen barely had a chance to question as Keith raised a fist and smashed the controls before him.

On the far side of the room the hangar door slid open, the Galra sentries sucked out into space almost immediately. The blonde yelped in surprise, latching on to the nearest piece of machinery. From the corner of her eye she could see Keith struggling to keep his grip on the smashed control panel.

“Why would you do that?!”

He was too close Aileen realized with growing horror. Keith was too close to the bay doors. The Paladin struggled to readjust his grip, only to lose it completely and disappear from sight moments later.

“KEITH!”

In the next instance her vision filled with red, the distorted sound of a lion’s roar, and then nothing but the newly empty hangar.

Aileen gaped at the open flight bay, struggling to process what she had just seen. Keith was gone, lost to space and out of sight. The Red Lion was gone, taking off after the boy like a shot. She was alone.

Alone.

The reality of her situation hit the blonde harder than the pressure change. Her fingers felt numb, even through her borrowed flight suit. The clear visor of her helmet should have kept it possible to breathe, even with the open door to space, but Aileen’s chest was tight.

_“-een.”_

Her head turned as the blonde tried to think her way through the emotions bubbling through her. She had to think. She’d sealed the door at the far end of the hangar, shot clean through the datapad with an enemy rifle. She wouldn’t be able to open it bare handed and the only thing that lay beyond it were the bowels of an enemy ship.

_“-leen!”_

The only exit was the hangar door Keith had opened, and the empty void of space. Vaguely Aileen wondered if she was beginning to understand how Ren felt facing the night sky after Kerberos.

_“Aileen!”_

Keith’s voice echoed in her ears, loud enough to cause static over the communication line and jarring her free from her thoughts. “Keith?!”

_“Jump,”_ the Paladin said as if that simple phrase answered everything. In the distance outside the hangar door AIleen saw the Red Lion returning, eyes aglow. _“I’ll catch you.”_

Aileen grinned and let herself fall into the starry expanse of space.

Everything happened fast from the moment the Red Lion caught Aileen, just as Keith had promised. The Lions returned to the castle to wake the Black Lion, Aileen left Keith for the navigation deck, still visibly jittery, and Sendak brought his battleship into the Arusian atmosphere with killing intent.

The castle’s barrier struggled under the fire of the Ion Cannon, even as Allura sent all five Lions out to fight. Ren’s grip on her cousin’s shoulders was tight, unable to look away as the Lions and their Paladins faltered. The mechanic wasn’t sure if she was breathing.

“ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!” Aileen demanded as the Galran ship successfully captured its targets with the tractor beam. Her enraged exclamation was cut short, shattering into a real scream as a final blast from the Ion Cannon tore down the barrier around the castle. The force of the blow sent the occupants toppling to the hard stone floor.

Miraculously the fall of the castle’s barrier seemed to have been the final push needed, Sendak’s next blast deflected away from the castle by what could only be Voltron.

Aileen felt herself laugh, the sound disjointed and giddy, “Ren, look. It’s a Gundam.”

The final fight was disappointingly short, Sendak’s battleship unable to withstand the might of Voltron. In what seemed like minutes the Galra ship was falling from the skies, crashing into the ground below, after a single massive explosion.

“We’ve won the battle!” Allura exclaimed, arms wide as the Paladins returned to the navigation deck. “Congratulations, Paladins.”

“Wonderful,” Coran agreed, beaming. “I’m glad you Paladins know what you’re doing. You’re going to need to form Voltron again and again if we’re to have any hope of defeating Zarkon.”

“Uh, what?” blanched Hunk, pulling the helmet from his head.

“We barely survived the one time,” Lance muttered.

“And that was just one ship!” Coran laughed, failing to pick up on anyone’s displeasure. “Wait until you fight a whole fleet of them. Ah, it’s not going to be easy, being the Defenders of the Universe.”

“Defenders of the Universe, huh?” Shiro repeated, rubbing the back of his neck, a small smile tugging at his lips. “You know, I kind of like the sound of that.”

“Great,” Ren spoke up, snapping her fingers and taking a step towards the Princess and her Advisor. “Now that we have a moment, I have a few concerns I was hoping we could address?”

“Oh no,” muttered Pidge as Aileen chuckled, the noise growing steadily louder.

“Concerns?” Allura repeated, glancing suspiciously over at the blonde.

“Uh huh. Concerns, several of them.” The mechanic jabbed a finger at the Yellow Paladin, who paused with a spoon of pilfered food halfway to his mouth. “Starting with that.”

Hunk blinked. “Me?”

“Wow, Ren,” Lance said, feigning offence on behalf of his friend. “You didn’t even use his name.”

Ren frowned, eyes narrowing. “Not Hunk. The goo. The goo that’s been in this castle for ten thousand years. Was it always goo? Is it still good? Is it even safe for regular human consumption? What about food related allergies?”

“Does anyone have food allergies?” Lance wondered, looking around the room.

The brunette woman brought a hand up, continuing to list her concerns on her fingers. “And while we’re on the subject of food, what’s storage like? Perishables? Do we have enough food to feed nine people, let alone teenagers? Teenagers eat a lot. Especially active teenagers. How are we going to replenish food stores? Are we just going to rely on the kindness of strangers?”

Allura faltered, clearly not expecting such an extensive list. “Uh…”

“Oh!” Ren snapped her fingers, moving on from food. “Finances! Given that this is a castle and you’re royalty I’d assume that normally wouldn’t be a problem but that was years and years ago. I doubt there’s a conversion rate for whatever the prevailing currency is now. Doesn’t that make us completely broke? How will we get supplies, parts for repairs, clothes? Toiletries!” There was a short pause for air before she continued. “And speaking of repairs please tell me that we can modify that particle barrier so that it lasts longer than five minutes. Also why is the access port so small? That seems like poor planning. Sorry Coran, but if there were no psychically linked space mice we would have been boned because of that. And-”

Aileen pulled herself to her feet, striding over to her cousin and linking their arms together.

“Alright, Ren. Break time.” the blonde said, starting to heft the woman towards the door with surprisingly little struggle.

“What about water retention and recycling?!” Ren called back, not faltering in the slightest as she was forced to walk backwards across the navigation deck. “What about the generator-”

The door shut with a faint swoosh, leaving the room in almost jarring quiet. Which was promptly broken by the Blue Paladin’s low whistle.

“So that was...intense.”

“About normal,” Pidge shrugged, to which Hunk added “She worries.”


	9. Strength

> **
> 
> Strength = the power to overcome obstacles
> 
> **

Sirens blared, shattering the silence of the Castle of Lions. The simulated light of the early morning suddenly flared into full brightness.

_“We are under attack!”_ Allura’s voice rang through the halls of the castle. _“Paladins, we are under attack! We need Voltron! Hurry!”_

On the Navigation Bay to the continuous noise of sirens Ren frowned, glancing over at the Altean royalty beside her. “I don't know if this is such a good idea.”

“Nonsense,” Allura countered, foot tapping as she watched the door. “They need to be prepared. Now that Zarkon is aware of us we could be attacked at any time.”

“Well, sure,” the human mechanic agreed slowly. “But-”

“You need to sell it more!” Coran interrupted, landing between them and taking the microphone from Allura. The man cleared his throat before wailing through the speakers. _“Oh no! The Princess is dead! This is terrible!”_

Ren balked, startled by the sudden shouting. “What are you doing?”

“Her severed head is trying to speak!” Coran continued, dropping to the floor in a fit of dramatic flair. “What are your last words, Allura’s head!”

The door to the Navigation Bay slid open, Shiro practically shoving himself through when the door didn't open fast enough. Aileen was several steps behind the pilot, her blanket still around her shoulders and one hand on Pidge’s arm, half dragging the Paladin along with her. Keith came running with enough haste that he nearly smacked into the doorframe as he rounded the corner, looking dazed. Hunk was the last into the room, slow jogging with all the hurry he could manage while seeming to still be asleep. He was the only one still in his pajamas.

“What..?” The Yellow Paladin mumbled, squinting blearily about the room for any sign of a threat.

“Coran,” the Princess frowned down at her Advisor. “It's over.”

“Yes,” the mustached man all but weeped, throwing an arm across his eyes. “If only we had Voltron!”

“So, I take it there's no real threat?” Shiro said slowly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It's a wake up call,” Ren offered with a shrug. “The Princess wanted to test the castle’s alarm system and thought she should shout at you all too.”

“It was a test,” Allura pointed out. “For the alarm system as well as for them. Guess who failed.” There was a pause as the Princess’s gaze swept across those in the room. “And where is Lance?”

“But Ren,” Aileen looked particularly betrayed, despite being one of the more awake teenagers. “You hate wake up calls!”

“Correct,” the mechanic agreed, reaching out and booping her cousin lightly on the nose. The blonde recoiled, frowning. “But a wake up call implies sleep, of which I have had none.” Ren sighed, gaze somewhere distant and unfocused though her smile didn’t stray. “I _really_ miss coffee.”

“Oh, coffee,” Shiro said slowly, as if he had forgotten about the concept. “Coffee would be amazing.”

The door to the Navigation Bay slid open with a quiet ' _whoosh_ ’, revealing the missing Paladin. Lance stood in the doorway as if he were posing for a pajama photo shoot; the teenager the only one in the room, besides the Alteans, that seemed well rested.

“Morning all,” Lance lifted the cup in his hand in greeting. Either he was perfectly aware of his timing or he had no idea an alarm had even sounded. “Did I miss anything?” Ren suspected the latter.

The mechanic frowned, eyes focusing on the cup in Lance’s hand. “Izzat coffee?”

The Blue Paladin paused, sensing the subtle threat to Ren’s question. “Uh, no? It's some of that weird Altean stuff Coran was talking about last night.”

“God damnit,” Ren sighed, shoulders dropping. “I hate space.”

Lance blinked. “Wait, that isn't it, is it?” At the mechanic’s blank look he elaborated. “Why you hate space?”

Aileen choked on a sudden bark of laughter, any attempt at silence it failing spectacularly. Ren’s frown deepened, looking as if she were wondering about her impression she was making on these kids.

“That's not it.” The brunette paused for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “Well, it's not helping.”

Shiro rubbed at his chin absently, as if he had just remembered something and was unsure how much he trusted the memory. “The Kerberos Mission had coffee. It was that terrible instant powder, about as bad as they served in the staff break room.” He chuckled softly, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “Matt said it tasted better if you ate it straight.”

Ren snorted as her cousin looked personally affronted. “Yeah but he said that about the Garrison brew too.” Several of the teenagers looked disturbed. “Granted he hadn't slept for about three days at the time.”

“Oh, I remember that,” Pidge added. “That was before his final presentation before the Kerberos crew was finalized.”

“Enough!” The Princess snapped, bringing the heel of her boot down on the floor. Hunk, half dozing on his feet, startled awake. “That is more than enough of that!”

The Altean royal shut her eyes for the span of two deep breaths, wrestling for control over her temper.

“You have to understand the scope of our mission,” Allura frowned. There was less obvious anger to her voice as she pressed a few buttons beside her. A holographic display flickered into life, filling the navigation deck with spots of light: coordinates for planets and solar systems across the expanse of the galaxy. “While we were asleep the castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations.” 

The color of the display changed rapidly, a deep angry red all but devouring the original soft blue of the hologram. It was a dramatic visual, even remembering it was a time lapse covering thousands of years.

“It’s safe to assume that Zarkon has conquered nearly the entire known galaxy,” the Princess continued and Ren finally recognized the new emotion in Allura’s voice. Guilt. Allura waved a hand and the map focused on one of the few remaining sections of blue. “Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable.” The Altean woman sighed as the others in the room processed her information, the map fading away behind her. “Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the castle ready to leave Arus. In the meantime you Paladins must learn how to form Voltron if we are to stand any chance of fighting Zarkon legitimately.”

The human mechanic made a gesture, silently throwing a hand up as her own efforts were overlooked.

“Oh, you’ve been very helpful,” Coran insisted with a twist of his mustache. “For not being familiar with Altean technology you’ve done a remarkable job of not destroying anything in your efforts to help.”

“Thank...you…” Ren responded slowly, wondering just how to take the man’s comment. It didn’t seem as if he was intentionally insulting her. The brunette wondered vaguely if that was somehow worse.

“I’m sorry, I have a question,” Aileen interrupted, holding up a hand. “What do you mean you’re getting the castle ready to leave the planet?”

“That’s right, you were asleep for that revelation,” her cousin said, stepping over to her cousin and placing a hand on her shoulders. With her free hand Ren gestured to the whole of the navigation deck. “The castle, the whole entire thing, is also a space ship.”

The blonde was silent for a heartbeat. “Okay, sure. Of course it is.”

“The Princess is right,” Shiro began, steering the conversation back to the previous topic. We should get to our Lions and run some flight drills.”

“Wait.” This time it was Pidge that interrupted, frowning up at the taller pilot. “I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

In a remarkably fluid motion Coran appeared before Pidge. “Negative, number 5. I have you ranked by height.” He explained, lifting a hand to just above The small Paladin’s head. Pidge’s frown deepened. Turning slightly, Coran nodded to Ren and Aileen. “You two can be ‘A’ and ‘B’.”

“Dibs on ‘A’,” the blonde said quickly. Turning to her cousin Aileen grinned, looking smug. “It’s only fair.”

“I’m older-” Ren caught herself arguing and sighed, shaking her head. “Fine.”

“The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow,” the Advisor continued. “You won’t be able to speak with them until then.”

The newly appointed Green Paladin frowned, obviously wanting to continue arguing. Ren stepped forward, placing a hand gently on Pidge’s shoulder. The shorter brunette blinked and looked up to meet Ren’s smile. “Lee and I will check in on them while you're out there. If anything changes we’ll let you know.”

Pidge hesitated for a heartbeat longer before nodding. “Thanks Ren.”

The mechanic removed her hand, pausing only to gently pinch the Green Paladin’s cheek. “I want to hear what they have to say, too. We’ll keep you informed.”

The Paladins separated, each going their own way to the respective Lions Den. The Princess and the two human women remaining in the Navigation Bay, Coran briefly disappearing to prepare for the repairs to the castle. Allura made a gesture, several screens appearing before her, displaying outside views of the castle and surrounding area along with several complicated looking displays and diagrams.

For as confident as the five had been when they left the castle, once in the air the Paladins seemed to have no real idea of what they were doing. From what Ren could make out from the symbols on the display screens Shiro seemed have begun with leading the group through a few basic flight drills and, failing that, forming a Jenga tower out of the Lions.

“No, no. This isn’t working,” Allura mumbled, more to herself than the remaining occupants of the Navigation Bay, as she watched the Lions move about on the screen. “They need proper motivation. They need…”

Something flashed behind the Princess’ eyes, a jolt of inspiration. Allura’s fingers flew to the screen in front of her, moving rapidly to follow whatever plan had formed. 

“Paladins!” she spoke over the communicator, excitement lighting her voice. “The intensity of your last battle brought you together as a team and forced you to focus and work as one.” There was a general murmur of consensus. “I’m glad you agree! Because I need to run a diagnostic on the castle’s defenses. This will help!”

“Wait,” Ren lifted her head, looking between the Altean woman and her cousin. Aileen was making a face as if she had just been assigned laundry duty. “What did she say?”

Outside the windows of the Navigation Bay the Particle Barrier flared into life, followed shortly by the sound of laser fire and static-y screaming from over the communication line.

_“What are you doing?!”_ Keith’s voice demanded, almost lost to the sounds of rattling and background screaming.

“Helping!” Allura exclaimed, concerningly enthusiastic. “This is now a harrowing situation. I believe in you Paladins! Let fear be your guide!”

Ren watched, wide eyed, as the Princess smiled and stepped away from the control screen. Allura all but skipped away, perfectly pleased with herself and with no visible intent on returning.

“Jesus Christ,” Aileen muttered as her cousin scrambled for the abandoned controls.

“She _locked_ it!” Ren yelped, half frantic in the realization. “There’s no way to turn it off. It’s firing live rounds.”

“Jesus Christ,” Aileen repeated, dragging her hands down her face. Pausing, the blonde looked out between her fingers, watching as Ren attempted to fix the issue with button pushing. “Isn’t all laser fire a ‘live round’ though?”

The mechanic frowned, momentarily distracted from her worry. “Don’t pussyfoot with my terminology. You know what I mean.”

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly.”

“ _Aileen_.”

The Paladins returned, stiff and slow moving, hours later. Lance fell face first onto the first couch he found, groaning into the cushions. The others sat down in a much more normal manner, if only with awkwardly slow movements that Ren understood well. 

“Went well, did it?” Ren asked needlessly as she looked over the tired teenagers. Her demeanor was casual, though her fingers closed just a little too tightly around the leather of her tool belt, her expression a little stiff. Lance groaned louder, face still smashed into the couch cushions. The mechanic nodded, “Wonderful.”

“How long were we out there?” Pidge asked, head dropping back against the couch. “It felt like hours.”

“Oh it was,” Aileen responded. “At least three.”

The Princess stepped into the room, her Advisor two steps behind her. Both Alteans seemed to be focused on the devices in their hands and the readings on the screen. They spoke quickly, some terms even familiar enough for Ren to recognize in passing, until Allura noticed the four seated Paladins.

“You did it!” Allura exclaimed, beaming. “You formed Voltron!”

“No,” Keith said shortly. “Eventually the shooting stopped and the barrier went down so we came in.”

The Princess’ expression fell, her face instantly darkening as she turned her head to look in her Advisor’s direction. Coran offered an apologetic smile. “I’m very sorry, Princess, but I had to turn off the castle defenses to test the fire suppressors.”

“The Particle Barrier still needs recalibrating,” Ren spoke up as if she had just remembered. “It still won’t survive more than two blasts from those Galra Ion Cannons.”

Allura turned her attention to the human mechanic, one eyebrow raised and mouth pressed thin. “I thought you said you could handle that.”

“Oh, I plan to,” the brunette insisted, crossing her arms. “There’s just two small issues. I can’t read Altean hieroglyphics and the only Ion Cannon to test the barrier with is smashed into the ground somewhere. I can do a lot but I can’t work miracles.”

Before the Princess could respond the second door to the room slid open, revealing the absent Black Paladin. Shiro stepped into the room, hands on his hips, and looking remarkably like a man that had just caught his children sneaking cookies before dinner. “What are you doing? We’re not taking a break.”

“Shiro’s right,” Allura insisted, content to turn the conversation back to the Paladins. “You should be training.”

“We’ve been training,” Hunk sighed, looking exhausted. “When are we going back to Earth?”

Pidge frowned, sitting upright. “I’m not going back until I find my family.”

“There won’t be an Earth unless we can figure out how to fight Zarkon,” Shiro said, the underlying threat in his words enough to elevate the tension in the room. Aileen turned, sharing a glance with her cousin and teeth finding her bottom lip. Ren returned the look, shaking her head. The movement was so minute that it was almost unnoticed.

“How?” Lance demanded, rolling over and pulling himself upright. “How are we supposed to fight? We can’t even figure out how to form Voltron!”

“Well I’m not surprised,” Coran said, his voice oddly peppy for the serious tone of the conversation. “The original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together. They were completely in sync! You lot have barely been fighting for a day.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Lance sighed, dropping himself bodily back onto the couch.

“During the last battle your survival instincts must have kicked in,” the Advisor explained. “But that will only get you so far. You’ll have to work as a real team for any hope of success. Perhaps it’s time we moved to the Training Deck.”

“There’s a Training Deck?” Hunk asked, incredulous.

“So you didn’t have to shoot at them for three hours,” Ren frowned, distaste clear.

“We did,” Allura insisted as the mechanic’s lip curled. “It’s clear now exactly how much work there is left to do.”

“It’s a lot,” Coran added in that happy voice of his, trying to be helpful.

On the surface the Training Deck seemed nothing special. It was a large expanse of a room, big enough to run combat drills with the full set of Paladins without limiting movement and an observation room behind what Ren could only assume to be reinforced glass. It was lacking any sort of exercise equipment the former Tech Sergeant was familiar with but if she were honest she hadn't been expecting any. The Altean advisor stood the closest to the glass, testing the microphone.

“Now,” Coran began, speaking to the Paladins in the room below. “The Paladin Code dictates that you put the safety of your companions above your own.”

“Can’t see how that could go wrong,” Aileen muttered, stepping up beside her cousin and leaning closer to the viewing window. “Throw yourself in front of incoming fire instead of letting your buddy block. Not like we need all of you guys or anything.”

“I don’t think it’s that literal,” Ren responded, attempting to sound as if she believed it. “I’m sure it’s more like covering for your companion's blind spots.”

On the Training Deck proper little circular drones began their round of laser fire. Hunk ducked almost instantly to avoid a shot, his action quickly followed by a yelp as Pidge was hit from behind and disappeared from the exercise.

The brunette woman winced in sympathy. “Like that. He probably should have blocked that.”

“Protect your teammates!” Coran called as the Yellow Paladin dropped an instant later. “Or no one will be there to protect you!”

The exercise as a whole lasted only a handful of minutes. The remaining three Paladins might have had a chance of doing decently if Lance and Keith hadn’t started mouthing off. Once the two took their eyes from the droids to exchange comebacks any hope of a longer performance was destroyed. Shiro was the last to fall but the only one to slide an impressive distance across the training room floor after taking a hit.

“Let’s...try something else,” the Altean Advisor said as the two human women beside him made a face.

“Urgh,” added Aileen, shaking her head.

“Yeesh,” Ren agreed.

The second exercise involved one of the Paladins navigating another through an invisible maze. Keith was chosen to move Lance through the maze and the Blue Paladin was having none of it, shouting about Keith walking him into walls on purpose and the Red Paladin getting defensive about Lance not listening properly.

“Coran,” the former Tech Sergeant began as Lance screamed again. Beside her Aileen made a face, looking as if she wanted to cover her eyes. “I can’t help but feel you’re doing this on purpose.”

“Oh, I most certainly am,” the man responded easily, twisting an end of his mustache. “These two are currently the ones with the most trouble working together. It won’t go away by simply ignoring it.”

Ren nodded, thoughtful. “Well, you’re not-” Her words were cut short by a dull _thunk_ as the Blue Paladin’s helmet smacked against the observation window, directly in front of Keith’s face. She sighed. “You’re not wrong.”

The next training exercise seemed to be focused on meditation and mental projection. The Paladins sat in a close circle, some sort of helmet ready to project their thoughts to the room.

“Okay,” Aileen commented, stuffing her hands into her pockets. “Now I'm glad Keith beat me out for Big Red. I don't want everyone rooting around in my head.”

Her cousin arched an eyebrow, teasing, “Thinking dirty thoughts are we?”

The blonde snorted, laughter in her voice. “I'm sorry, which one of us got caught macking on someone after curfew in a supply closet?”

“Shh, shut up.” Ren hissed, shoving Aileen on the shoulder. “And I didn't get caught. And that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.”

Down below on the training floor Lance’s shoulders shook, the teenager doubling over with poorly suppressed laughter. Ren’s head whipped around to Coran, cheeks pink. “Can they hear us?!”

The Altean smiled apologetically. “Would it make you feel better if I said no?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” the brunette frowned. “But you could say it.”

“Then not at all!” Coran turned his attention back to the viewing window, clearing his throat. On the training floor Lance had managed to get control of his laughter, though he still seemed to snicker on occasion. “Now, the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. So clear your minds, and breathe.”

From the distance of the observation box it was difficult to see what appeared on the tiny holographic screens before the individual Paladins. Some wavered, the whole image rolling like a turbulent sea, making it impossible even as Aileen and Ren stepped closer to the glass and squinted.

The desert shack.

A large group of people that was likely Lance’s family as he had last seen them.

The most important picture in the world to Pidge, much larger and clearer than the polaroid.

A brief, crystal clear image of the Garrison moments before the Kerberos launch.

Ren swallowed as the screens flickered, forming Lions. One by one the holographic Lions floated stiffly towards the center where they would meet. All except for the miniature Green Lion. Pidge frowned, one eyebrow twitching, as the Lion flickered between form and keepsake image.

“Oh, Pidge,” Aileen breathed, hand pressing against the glass.

“Pidge,” Keith snapped, opening one eye to glower at the Green Paladin. “Quit thinking about your girlfriend!”

“I’m not!” Pidge retorted, temper short. “It was Hunk. He’s rooting around in my head!”

“Oh, sorry,” the Yellow Paladin piped up, though he didn’t sound apologetic. “I thought we were being open.”

“Clear your minds!” Coran called out, tone urgent and insistent as he hoped to squash the impending argument.

Things fell apart quickly, with Pidge unable to focus and quickly growing more irritated. Keith’s temper was also running short, the Red Paladin becoming increasingly snappish each time the exercise failed. It was difficult to watch, even for Ren and Aileen, each time that picture flashed into focus.

“I’m done!” Pidge finally snapped, slamming the helmet into the ground. “I don’t like everyone poking around in my head like this. I’m done.”

“Come on, Pidge,” Shiro began gently. “We’re doing pretty well here.”

“No!” The Green Paladin bristled then sighed, deflating. “I’m just...I’m tired.”

“Right,” Shiro nodded, pulling the helmet from his head. “Let’s take a break, everyone.”

The tension in the room didn’t dissipate, but it faded considerably as the mental training exercise was left behind. Everyone seemed more than willing to take a moment where they weren’t pushed to complete a task, the tension in Keith’s shoulders dropping as the atmosphere became more casual.

“They should eat something,” Ren said as Coran passed out what might have been juice boxes to the Paladins. “No one got breakfast and it’s well past lunch now.”

“They have been working hard,” Coran agreed. “Perhaps-”

“What are you doing?” the Princess demanded, sounding as if she had just caught them rifling through her drawers. “You’re supposed to be training, not lazing around!”

“Just taking a quick break,” Coran explained as Ren’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t push too hard after all.”

“What do you mean ‘can’t push too hard’?” Allura scoffed, gaze steely. “Get up. It’s time to face the Gladiator.”

In the only proper display of unison since entering the Training Deck the younger Paladins groaned, Lance literally dropping back onto the floor. Ren pressed her lips together, looking displeased, and the Princess’ gaze snapped to her.

“I take it you have something to add?”

The mechanic’s eyebrow arched, tipping her chin up to meet Allura’s cold stare with ease. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Princess. If I had something to say to you, I’d say it.”

Hunk leaned over slightly, stage whispering to the blonde girl standing beside him. “Are they going to fight?”

“Not yet,” Aileen answered, sounding only mildly disappointed.

The Paladins were ushered back onto their feet and told to draw their Bayards as the rest of the group retreated back to the observation deck. Keith was the only one to hold his weapon with any amount of confidence, closely followed by Pidge. Hunk was hesitant, carefully handling his blaster, and Lance seemed more focused on looking cool.

Aileen nudged her cousin with an elbow, nodding her head towards the Yellow and Blue Paladins. “Have they ever even touched a gun before?”

“Doubtful,” the mechanic tapped lightly at her chin, watching the two teenagers. “Garrett is too timid and McClain seems to be mirroring movie holds. Neither of them have any trigger discipline.”

“They’re going to shoot themselves,” Aileen hissed, pressing her hands to the glass over the two gun toting Paladins as if she could knock some sense into them from a distance. “Or each other.”

Sure enough when the Gladiator dropped and began its attack Hunk attempted to counter with an arc of laser fire, nearly hitting Keith in the process. The bulky teenager was quickly dispatched, knocked flat and stunned from the robot’s staff. Pidge moved in next, all fast slashing movements and attempted counters.

“Pidge has a good technical grasp of combat,” Ren watched as the shorter Paladin winced each time the Gladiator returned a blow. “But no real experience.”

Aileen had to cover her face with her hands as Lance’s gun was knocked from his hands with minimal effort, the Blue Paladin sent flying into Keith. Both boys crumpled with a shared grunt, both luck and Keith’s reflexes keeping Lance from a sword injury. Shiro charged the robot, prosthetic arm flaring purple. Only to freeze when the Gladiator’s gaze found him, the pilot’s eyes somewhere far away.

“Oh,” Ren breathed as Keith scrambled to block the blow meant for the Black Paladin. “Oh no.”

Aileen peeked through her fingers just in time to see the Gladiator’s staff knock Keith’s Bayard away and smash the Red Paladin into the Black. At the glass of the observation window the Altean Princess tsk-ed, turning on her heel as the glow on the Gladiator dimmed. The two human women exchanged a glance before following her to the door.

“That simulation was set at a level fit for an Altean child,” Allura snapped as she appeared on the training deck proper, glaring down at the fallen Paladins crumpled across the training room floor. Her words were sharp, disdain as clear as the ice in her tone. “You’re nowhere near being able to work together. You can hardly be called a team.”

Ren folded her arms across her chest, fingers tight around the fabric and jaw set as she watched the Princess pace.

“Oh, oh!” Aileen interrupted, sliding up to the Princess and holding up her hand as if this were a classroom lecture. “Can we try too?”

Allura paused, eyebrows knitting together as she glanced back to the deactivated Gladiator. “You want to... try?”

“Yes,” the blonde nodded. “Ren and I. Right Ren?”

Aileen turned to face her cousin, bouncing slightly on her heels. She looked remarkably like a child faced with a trip to the candy store. The Princess shifted, turning her gaze to the brunette woman. There was something subtle in the Altean’s eyes that seemed to insist the human disagree with her cousin.

Ren gave Allura half of a grin, the expression not nearly apologetic. “Actually, I'd love a chance to punch something.”

“Yes!” Aileen whooped, pumping a fist.

“But you're injured!” Pidge interjected, pointing at Ren.

The former Tech Sergeant glanced down at her hand, still plastered with mismatched bandages from Earth. She shrugged, “This is a scrape.”

“And you don't have any weapons.” Hunk added, looking apprehensive. “We had weapons and we didn't do so well.”

“It is a shame I didn't keep ahold of that Galra gun,” Aileen frowned. “I don't even have a knife.”

“See if Keith will let you borrow his,” Ren offered, only to be met with an instant ‘no’ from the Red Paladin.

“Stingy,” the blonde retorted, sticking her tongue out.

Ren laughed, unfastening her tool belt and handing it off to Hunk. “Hold that for me, Garrett.”

“Oh,” Hunk mumbled, momentarily distracted as he looked over the tool belt. “This is nice.”

“Wait just a tick,” Allura frowned, hands on her hips. “Nothing has been decided yet. The Paladin’s are our priority. We must focus on-”

Coran stepped forward, lightly clapping the Princess on the back. “Now, now. There is nothing wrong with letting the two of them have a go. Combat training is a useful skill for everyone to have.”

Ren nodded to her cousin, rolling her shoulders out as she spoke. “I have some more hand-to-hand than you do. Hang back for a bit, let me hit it and see what we're up against?”

“I want to hit it with it’s stick,” Aileen responded, enthusiastic at the idea.

The mechanic laughed. “It's good to have goals.”

The Princess and the Paladins moved away, staying to the very outside edges of the room instead of the observation box with Coran. From the window the Advisor adjusted the microphone near his face and gave a thumbs up- a gesture he had picked up quickly despite the limited time around the humans.

_“Take your positions and we’re ready to begin.”_

Ren turned to face the Gladiator, one arm raised near her face and the other held lower, both fists closed. She shifted on her feet, attempting to find a balance between movement and a braced stance. Aileen stood more open, knees slightly bent and ready to move when the battle robot became active. Her fingers twitched at her hip even knowing she would find nothing there.

“Are you sure we can’t give them a weapon?” Hunk asked, flinching prematurely.

“Begin!” Allura called, snapping her fingers.

The Gladiator rose to it’s feet, lights glowing blue. It moved faster than expected. Ren sidestepped to avoid a downward blow from the staff only to be met with a momentum change, the weapon now swung like a baseball bat. The brunette dropped her arms, grabbing the staff in an attempt to block the blow. Her palms stung for the effort.

Ren licked her lips, adjusting her grip on the staff for a more secure hold. The Gladiator did the same. Instead of ripping the weapon from the woman’s hold the robot pushed forward, using the staff like a jousting lance and forcing Ren backwards until she tripped.

When the staff began to pull upwards Ren released her grip, bracing herself on the ground with her hands, bending her body into a flat-topped ‘n’. The mechanic pushed off the ground, using the momentum to return to her feet. The action took more effort than Ren would ever care to admit and she stumbled, off balance. Ren looked up just in time to see Aileen plow into the robot as if this were a football scrimmage.

To the blonde’s credit the Gladiator was pushed back, it’s staff clanging to the floor and rolling away. The Gladiator reached down, ripping the teenager away from it’s side. Aileen was tossed away with mechanical ease, sending her tumbling across the training room floor. The Gladiator turned his attention to the brunette, staring menacingly with the one eye.

It came to meet her with fists ready. She turned, stepping closer to the robot as its punch blew past her. Ren brought her own arm up, swinging to meet the Gladiator dead center in the stomach. The hit did nothing. Cursing, Ren pulled her arm back to repeat the movement once, twice, in rapid succession before fingers closed around the back of her neck. The mechanic made a strangled noise of surprise, something caught between a gasp and a yelp, before she too was flung away. The whole training room spun and Ren hit the ground with her knees, hard.

Ren went to stand but her knees buckled, dropping her back to kneeling. The mechanic twisted herself around to face her cousin. “Lee!”

Aileen began moving at the same instance the Gladiator did, sneakers slapping against the training room floor. Ren linked her fingers together, holding her open palms near the floor. The blonde’s sneaker found the makeshift brace, her hand on Ren’s shoulder as the mechanic turned to heft her cousin at the robot. With the added leverage Aileen was able to meet the Gladiator as he approached, hitting it at the torso and shoulders with her full weight. Both girl and battle robot crumpled to the floor in a heap of limbs.

No one moved for several moments, the blonde on her back and one foot where the Gladiator’s face would be. Aileen stuck an arm in the air, fingers closed into a fist. “Woo!”

Ren laughed, dropping herself back against the cool floor of the training room. The mechanic closed her eyes, taking several breaths to return her breathing to normal. Her injured hand pounded with the beat of her heart. “Damn, I'm still out of shape.”

“Ser?” The brunette opened her eyes to find the Black Paladin standing over her, looking concerned. “You doing okay?”

“Wait, what?” Aileen interrupted as Pidge hefted her back onto her feet. “What did he call you?”

“Drop it,” Ren responded, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. There was a dull thud followed by Aileen’s quiet ‘oof’ and Ren lifted her head to look. Pidge’s arms were out, expression neutral, and Aileen was back on the training room floor. 

“Sorry,” the corners of Pidge’s mouth twitched, voice wavering with suppressed snickering. “But she did tell me to drop it.”

The blonde blinked, slowly registering what had happened, then frowned and kicked the Green Paladin at the knees. Pidge shouted in indignation as Aileen grabbed the younger brunette, one arm about Pidge’s shoulders and her hand in Pidge’s hair- now even more of a mess than was usual.

“Well, that was almost impressive,” the Princess sighed as the Paladin and the army brat wrestled.

Ren chuckled briefly, waving away the hand Shiro offered and pushed herself into a sitting position. “That's a pretty good summary of things, actually.”

Dinner that night was more of the questionable green goo, now accompanied by squishy pink squares that looked to be a hybrid of pudding and cake. The Paladins filled one side of the table, several of them sinking heavily into their chairs. Ren and Aileen sat at the opposite side, near the middle of the table, the blonde poking at her plate of goo and Ren flexing her injured hand.

“You’ve gone and broken it,” Aileen remarked as Coran explained the meal, smacking lightly at the goo with the back of her spoon. “Now you’re a double cripple.”

“Okay, one,” the brunette frowned, no real hostility in her voice. “I can walk just fine now so I’m not a cripple, and two I have full range of motion in my hand so it’s not broken. Punching that thing wasn’t all that different than hitting the truck door.”

The sounds of clanging, forks dropping, and joint sounds of confusion from the opposite side of the table drew Aileen’s attention away from asking her cousin about punching car doors. The two looked up just in time to see the Paladins’ wrists fastened to each other with some form of magnetic handcuffs. In one swift motion Aileen pushed herself back from the table and Ren was on her feet quick enough to knock her chair over.

“Are you shitting me?” the mechanic hissed, turning to face the Altean man. “Are you- You’re not even going to let them eat?!”

“I saw a lot of solid individual performances,” Coran explained to the room. “But you’re still struggling to work as a team. So this will be the final bonding exercise of the day. You’ll feed each other!”

Aileen stared, mouth agape as Lance struggled in her peripheral vision against the restraints. “He’s way too happy about the food equivalent of Monopoly.”

“That’s not-” Ren sputtered, unable to find the proper words. She pinched the bridge of her nose as Allura entered the dining hall. “You can’t just-”

“Feel free to begin eating everyone,” the Princess said, daintily tucking herself into her seat at the head of the table. “There’s one more round of flight drills before the sun sets.”

The ordeal went about as well as could be expected. With no slack between the restraints it was a lot more difficult to synchronize movements. Fingers were bit, people were elbowed, spoons nearly went up noses. Twice Lance had complained about Keith intentionally groping his food. The second time Keith had responded by knocking Lance’s plate over. The only thing stopping a fight from breaking out had been the handcuffs.

“Don’t you Earthlings ever stop complaining?” Allura snipped, the constant clattering and bickering finally annoying her into speaking.

“Can’t you just give us a break?” Shiro responded, speaking up negatively for the first time that day. “Everyone has been working very hard today.”

“Yeah!” Keith was on his feet in an instant, sounding hostile. “We’re not some prisoners you get to toy with like-” He faltered, stumbling to find the words to properly express his irritation.

“Like some toy prisoners!” Lance added, completely serious.

“You do not yell at the Princess!” Coran interjected, sounding offended.

“Oh, the Princess of what?” Pidge demanded, reminding Ren of one of the reasons she liked the kid so much. “We’re the only people here and she’s no Princess of ours!”

Green goo splattered across the bespectacled brunette’s face, dripping thickly from hair and glasses frames. A moment of silence followed, everyone processing that it had been Allura that had assaulted Pidge with food. The resulting food fight was inevitable.

“It reminds me of home,” Aileen responded idly as Keith tossed his whole plate at the Princess, only for it to be blocked with ease by Coran. “Except Luke was always kind enough to leave his handcuffs in the bedroom so we all didn’t have to look at his kinks.”

The Advisor returned fire with the ladle, splattering the entire row of Paladins with a practiced ease that wasn’t likely acquired through food fights. Ren took several large steps back from the table, gently dragging her cousin along by the arm.

When the chaos finally subsided both Paladins and Alteans, the whole length of the dinner table, and several feel of ceiling were covered in goo. The only ones to avoid the mess had been Ren and Aileen, the two having enough sense to move away from the table as the fighting broke out. Though the blonde had very much wanted to slam a bowl of food over someone’s head during the fray. In the sudden calm the group of Paladins looked at each other, each one of them splattered with lime green, and laughed- the first true bout of laughter since arriving on the Blue Lion.

“Enough!” The Princess’ shout echoed across the room, startling everyone into silence. Confusion passed over the faces of the Paladins as Allura lifted her head and smiled bright enough to shame the sun. “Don’t you see what you’re doing? You’re finally working together!”

“Hey,” Lance grinned, elbowing Keith in a gesture that wasn’t antagonistic. “I don’t hate you right now.”

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Hunk asked, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet.

Shiro smiled broadly, with all the confidence and familiarity of his Garrison days. “Let’s go form Voltron!”

“Oh, I meant dessert,” Hunk admitted, though his own grin remained. “But yeah, let’s do that!”

Once freed from the handcuffs, and a quick shake down to remove some of the goo, the Paladins hurried from the dining hall with renewed purpose. Lance slipped on some of the goo splattered across the floor in the scramble to the Lion Dens but managed not to fall, winking at the women before exiting the room.

“I love it when a plan comes together,” Allura mused aloud, brushing her dress clean. “Coran, let’s-”

“ _ **Sit. Down.**_ ” the mechanic snarled with enough venom that Aileen was three steps from an empty chair before the blonde realized the words weren’t directed towards her.

The Princess turned, eyebrows raised in quiet surprise. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Ren responded, stepping closer. “I told you earlier that if I had something to say to you I’d say it. And, Bubblegum, I sure as sugar have some shit to say to you.” Ren jabbed a finger in Allura’s direction, movement sharp, and Coran took half a step between the two women. The brunette snorted, “That goes for you too, Mr. Peanut.”

“You will not address the Princess in such a way.” The Altean man straightened, as if to form a physical wall between his liege and the irate mechanic.

Ren scoffed, lip curling in distaste. “I will address her as she deserves and for what she pulled today, you’re lucky all I’m doing is talking.”

“For what-” Allura frowned, on her feet in an instant. “And just what is it you think I’ve done? Training the Paladins-”

“Then maybe you should actually train them!” Ren interrupted, words all teeth and anger. “What you’ve been doing today has been so far away from training that it’s two steps away from torture.”

The Altean woman looked as if she had just been slapped across the face, one hand flying to her collarbone and eyes wide. “ _Torture?_ Are you out of your mind?”

“No breaks,” the former Tech Sergeant began, holding up a finger. As her list continued Ren held up an additional finger as a visual representation of her words. “In fact, no rest at all. Throwing untrained children- no, worse. Untrained children and a man clearly still suffering from combat related trauma- into repeated combat situations with no direction and expecting them to do well, providing no weapons training and expecting them to operate new weapons efficiently, inhibiting their ability to eat. Not to mention repeatedly yelling because that’s how you teach someone. You yell at them. You don’t get to handwave that away just because you lucked out and got the result you wanted.”

“How dare you-”

“No, how dare _you_ ,” Ren snapped. Her words tasted like the hot metal of her anger, too sharp to hold in. “You’re supposed to be better than what you’re fighting against.”

“You know _nothing_ of Zarkon.” Allura’s voice shook with barely suppressed emotion, fingers clutching tight around the collar of her dress. “You know nothing of what he’s done.”

The mechanic’s eyes were cold, points of ice in the suddenly too hot dining hall. “I know what’s in front of me. I know what I’ve seen, and all I’ve seen is self-proclaimed royalty do little more than trigger a severely traumatized and amnesiatic man into a panic attack, abuse children, and then yell at them when they didn’t match your standards. I’m done pulling punches. I’m done playing nice. Try this shit again and I’ll tear you down myself.”

With one swift movement Ren reached through the gap above Coran’s shoulder, patting the Princess on the cheek with an open palm and only a little more force than was needed. “You've got spunk, Bubblegum. Don't make me hate you.”

Allura moved her face away moments before Ren pulled her hand back, a complicated array of emotions struggling to be expressed. As her hand moved away the human mechanic clapped her Altean counterpart on the ear as a reminder he, too, had been included in her rant.

The brunette woman turned on her heel, leaving the room with surprisingly light steps in the wake of her anger. Aileen closed the distance between her and her cousin with a few long strides, blonde hair a banner behind her. The younger girl spared the Alteans a single glance as she passed, mouth a thin line and face unreadable.

“Not that I disagree,” Aileen began slowly as they moved through the castle halls. “But are you sure that was smart?”

“I don't care,” Ren responded simply, searching the pouches on her tool belt. “It needed to be said.”

Ren cursed under her breath, fumbling with a pouch before producing her flip lighter and cigarettes. She sighed softly, shoulders dropping slightly as she placed the cigarette between her lips and flicked the lighter into life. “Thank god.”

As they stepped into the remaining sunlight outside the Castle of Lions the mechanic blew a puff of smoke and Aileen shook her head. “You know Pidge will try to take those from you.”

“Try,” the woman nodded, gesturing vaguely with her cigarette. “Being the key word.”

Allura watched in silence from the doorway of the castle as the Paladins returned, the other two humans moving to greet them. “Was she right, Coran? Did I go too far?”

The man was silent for a moment, smoothing his mustache. In the distance Pidge hurried over to the older brunette. Ren laughed, carefully lifting a leg and pressing her boot squarely in the center of Pidge’s armor, stopping the Green Paladin short. The arm holding her cigarette pack lifted above her head, further preventing Pidge from reaching them.

“I think, perhaps,” Coran began. “That the two of you were focused on different aspects of the problem.” At the Princess’ silence he elaborated, “To us these people are new. Someone we've just met with no real attachments to. It is much easier to focus on the larger problem of forming Voltron and stopping Zarkon. For Miss Ren these are her people, ones she feels responsible for. It's only natural that she focuses first on their wellbeing.”

The human mechanic’s laughter turned to a yelp as Pidge began to literally climb her to reach the goal of the cigarette pack. Ren flailed, struggling to remain upright and not accidentally burn the Paladin with her lit cigarette. Her cousin was laughing to hard to help, her hand on Keith’s shoulder as she struggled to breathe. Hunk hurried over as his former teacher threatened to topple over, taking ahold of Ren’s shoulders as she attempted to shove Pidge off with her free hand.

It was a completely ridiculous scene but somehow so completely human. The Princess of a forgotten planet folded her arms across her chest, unable to shake the encroaching feeling of loneliness from her bones.


	10. The High Priestess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of name talk in this chapter that wasn't really planned but here we are. Also I apologize for all the cutting between groups, the episode had a lot of them.

 

> **The High Priestess = emotions and understanding**

Ren awoke to the familiar feeling of half her face smooshed into a couch cushion and the stiffness that came from not finding her bed before falling asleep. She muttered something that might have been coherent enough to be a curse, slowly rolling herself onto her back. Her toolbelt laid uncomfortably across her hips, some unidentifiable tool jabbing the small of her back. The mechanic groaned, throwing an arm across her still closed eyes. She could still pretend, before she opened her eyes to the white walls and pale blue lights of the castle, that she was home.

Except this couch didn’t smell like popcorn and Fabreeze. It smelled like nothing. The whole castle smelled like nothing, as if no one had ever lived in it. Ren dropped the arm from across her face, finally opening her eyes to the simulated early morning light.

Only to find her cousin leaning over the couch arm behind Ren, bent over sideways to stare down at the brunette. Aileen’s face was a hard frown, her hands on her hips and one foot tapping out an irritated staccato.

“Holy shit?” Ren pressed herself down against the couch cushions in an attempt to put some space between her and the irate blonde. Aileen leaned down closer, continuing her intimidation tactics.

“When are you going to talk to him?” the teenager demanded, nearly touching noses with her cousin.

“Uh?” Ren offered intelligently as her sleep fogged brain tried to process the situation she’d found herself in. “Who?”

“ _Shiro_!” Aileen threw her arms out to emphasize her point, even as Ren began to shove her away. “When are you going to talk to Shiro?”

The mechanic finally managed to push the blonde away enough to sit upright, though Aileen had used gravity to hamper Ren’s efforts. Ren rolled her shoulders, attempting to rid herself from the stiffness of her own poor sleeping habits. Aileen didn’t seem to appreciate the lack of an answer as she reached over and smacked her cousin upside the head.

Ren frowned, glowering, as she returned the smack to the blonde’s side. “It’s only been like three days.”

“Uh, yeah,” Aileen insisted, their conversation quickly devolving into a slap fight as she smacked Ren again for good measure. “That’s two too many! You’ve barely said all of five words to him, Ren! That’s not how this was supposed to work. You were supposed to jump into his arms and make a room full of teenagers uncomfortable!”

The brunette rolled her eyes, catching her cousin by the wrist and pulling her down as she stood. There was a struggle, and Ren took a good elbow to the stomach, but eventually Aileen was the one face down on the couch with the older woman sitting on her back to keep her in place. 

“He doesn't know who I am, Lee.” Ren frowned, silently hoping the tightness in her throat hadn't been heard on her words. “I can't just ‘jump into his arms’ or whatever you were wanting. That's, I don't know. Probably rude.”

“That sounds like an excuse to me,” came the teenager’s muffled reply. Aileen lifted her head, sitting up as much as was possible with her cousin sitting on her back and propped her chin up with an arm. “Sounds like you're running away.”

“I'm not running away,” the mechanic snapped, faster than intended. “I'm here, aren't I?”

The blonde huffed, fingers drumming an absent beat against the couch cushion. Aileen glanced behind her, watching Ren as much as she could manage without twisting herself into a pretzel. “Don't you think he deserves to know?” 

Ren sighed, bending forward and pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. She stayed that way long enough for her cousin to question if Ren would ever answer; then the mechanic groaned, tugging her fingers through her hair and straightening. “Don't you think he deserves a chance to get his head on straight before something else gets dumped on him?”

Aileen rolled her eyes. “You aren't dumping your feelings on-”

“Exactly,” Ren interrupted, gently shoving the blonde’s face into the couch. “My feelings. Mine. It's my choice when to tell him.”

The teenager responded by blowing a raspberry, the sound stilted and muffled by the couch cushion but her view on the matter clear.

“How about,” the mechanic offered, climbing to her feet with only minimal joint popping, “Instead of giving me the third degree you find Garrett and McClain and give them a crash course on proper shooting before they kill themselves?”

“Fine,” Aileen literally rolled herself from the couch and onto the floor, nearly knocking Ren down. The blonde climbed to her feet, giving her cousin the ‘I’m watching you’ hand gesture as she moved for the door. “But don’t think this conversation is finished.”

Ren rolled her eyes, “God forbid.”

The door closed without a sound, leaving the brunette alone again. The weight of the conversation settled around her, weighing heavily on her shoulders, filling her lungs until it was difficult to breathe. Ren dropped back onto the couch, bending over and pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes until spots formed.

Aileen was right. Shiro didn't deserve to be avoided, none of this was his fault. One way or another Ren would have to face him.

“Pull it together,” she hissed, hating the way her voice shook. “Pull it together, Ripley, there's things to do. You can cry about it later.”

Even with her abysmal pep talk it took Ren several minutes to feel stable enough to move. She straightened, sliding her expression into deadpan neutrality as she moved for the door. Ren caught her reflection in the polished metal in the seconds before the door opened. She was reminded of her early teaching days at the Garrison, after the news of the Kerberos crash.

The hallway was gloriously empty, Aileen true to her word. Ren took a deep breath and tries to ignore the relief sinking into her chest. The brunette turned to get her bearings in the unfamiliar ship and was openly startled to find Princess Allura only a few strides away. She had been so silent that Ren hadn't even heard her approach.

“A word, mechanic?”

Ren turned to face the princess proper, eyebrow raising. “I have a name.”

“You-” Allura faltered, the stilted pause to her sentence the only obvious sign of embarrassment. “You never told me what to call you.”

“Maybe,” the brunette admitted slowly, shifting her gaze to an unspecific point to the side as she tried to remember if that was true. Things had happened so quickly after the Princess and Coran had been released from those cryo-stasis pods, names hadn’t seemed to matter much. Yet Allura had known what to call the would-be Paladins when assigning the Lions. “Even so, you’ve heard other people call me by name.”

“I am aware,” the Princess said, more defensive than Ren felt she had any right to be, “of the concept of a nickname.” Allura sighed, a long exhale of breath with shoulders dropping. When she spoke again her voice was softer. “I am also aware that we are hardly close enough for me to use one.”

Ren blinked, feeling her lips twitch as she struggled to swallow the bark of laughter that threatened to escape from her. Allura’s eyes narrowed as the laughter spilled from the brunette like water from a too-full cup. “I think,” Ren answered, shoulders shaking, “That you have the authority to call me about anything you want, Princess.”

“I suppose,” Allura said slowly.

“Ren is fine,” the mechanic provided, crossing her arms. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“No, actually. I was hoping we could discuss our previous…” Allura paused, pressing her lips together as she searched for the word. “Conversation." 

Ren’s eyes flashed, fingers tightening around the sleeve of her outer shirt. “If you’re hoping for an apology, you’re going to be disappointed.”

The Altean woman was silent, holding the brunette’s gaze. Sighing, Allura shook her head. “No, that isn’t what I’m hoping for. You weren’t completely wrong.”

“Gee, thanks,” Ren snorted.

“Zarkon is a plague upon the universe. One that must be defeated for anyone to know peace.” Allura spoke. Her voice was calm but her determination and passion colored her words. “We’ve had our first victory-”

“One you’re damn lucky we got at all.” Ren snapped, interrupting before she could think better of it. “Two of your pilots have never trained and, okay, maybe magic semi-sentient lions help with that. But the paces you put them through, without food or breaks, should have had Shiro seeing double. That’s not even counting-”

Allura held up a hand and the mechanic grudgingly snapped her mouth shut, though she eyed the Princess wearily. “I did not come find you to reignite this argument.”

The brunette said nothing, one eyebrow ticking up in silent question.

“Coran said something to me that day. He said that we were too focused on the extremes of the situation to see compromise. You are aware of my stance on this battle,” the Princess offered a diplomatic smile but Ren could see the fire in her eyes. “And I will admit to finding priority with my own views. Coran reminded me that you would find focus with your people, the ones you feel responsible for. I am hoping to open a dialogue and with it find a middle ground before…”

“Before I threaten to punch you,” Ren finished, the beginnings of a smile curving her lips. The mechanic lifted an arm, holding a hand out to the Altean. “Alright, Princess. If you’re willing to give it a shot, then so am I.”

Allura took ahold of the offered hand, shaking it with more grip strength than Ren had been expecting. “Allura, if you please. If we’re to try to be on better terms there’s little need to stand on ceremony." 

“If you say so, Princess,” Allura frowned and Ren offered an apologetic chuckle. “It’ll take some getting used to.”

 

* * *

 

Aileen found most of the Paladins in the dining hall, having returned from aerial drills in their Lions. The timing would have been perfect if the blonde hadn’t spent the better part of an hour since leaving her cousin’s side scouring the castle in her search. Lance and Keith were arguing about whether or not the Blue Paladin had been responsible for causing Voltron to fall over during their drills, but Aileen wasn’t listening.

“Shiro,” the blonde moved over to the long dining table with quick strides, pressing her hands flat against the cool tabletop and leaning forward. It did nothing to put her at eye level with the man but Aileen could almost pretend it would work for intimidation. “Can I ask you something?”

Shiro paused to pull the helmet from his head, tucking it under one arm as he turned to face her. “Of course." 

Aileen swallowed and for a split-second her determination faltered. Then her mouth opens and the words tumble out before she could even think better of them. “You really don’t remember anything?”

“Whoa,” Lance yelped, suddenly distracted from his argument with Keith. “You can’t just ask a guy about his memory loss.” He glanced across the room to Hunk as if hoping the other Paladin would provide some sort of confirmation. “Can she?”

“I mean,” Hunk offered, shuffling ever-so-slightly away from Aileen’s position at the banquet table. “She kind of just did, so…” 

Shiro chuckled, or attempted to. The sound was more a poor attempt to clear his throat. “Did I know everyone here before?”

“The aliens are new,” Aileen said without humor. The blonde straightened, crossing her arms, brown eyes finding grey. “Tell me what you remember about the Garrison.”

The Black Paladin shifted on his feet, free hand lifting to scratch idly at his chin. “Well…”

Aileen pressed her lips together, fingers curling against the tabletop. For a heartbeat she wondered if she should keep pushing when Shiro was clearly uncomfortable. Then she remembered Ren’s face when he’d asked who she was. “Look, if you’re worried about offending me, don’t. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen you in person and when I joined up at the Garrison you were, well, graduated. I’m not trying to test you for the inner workings of a friendship or anything.”

“Then why does it matter?” Lance asked. “Let’s just drop it.”

“It’s important,” the blonde insisted, prepared to argue.

The door to the kitchens slid open, revealing Coran with a concerningly large covered tray in hand. “Greetings, Paladins!” Seeing Aileen the Royal Advisor nodded in her direction as he placed the tray on the table with a flourish. “Letter A. You’re just in time for lunch.”

Aileen blinked, stepping back as the lid was pulled away to reveal...something squishy and wiggling. “What…” Aileen swallowed, thoroughly distracted from her original goal. “What is it?”

“A traditional Paladin Lunch,” Coran provided, puffing out his chest and standing straighter. “You’re in for quite a treat! It’s packed with nutrients, perfect for getting you back on your feet after a day of training.”

“Oh, wow,” Aileen struggled not to make a face as the smell of the lunch filled the air. “But you know, I’m not a Paladin so I really couldn’t.”

“We’re supposed to eat that?” Keith muttered from somewhere behind her shoulder.

If Coran heard the Red Paladin’s comment he didn’t react, waving a hand in the blond girl’s direction. “Nonsense, there’s plenty. You and Letter B could use the extra energy for whatever it is you do all day. Sleep?”

There was no hostility in the Altean man’s voice, the smile on his face perfectly friendly, but Aileen still bristled. “Hey-”

“Coran,” Hunk interrupted, stepping over and placing a hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Coran, this is...something. And that’s great! But we’re on a planet with all sorts of goodies. Spices, something that might be a potato?” The Yellow Paladin produced some sort of unfamiliar plant, turning it over in his hand as he considered. “Probably a potato. We should use them! Let me at that kitchen.”

Hunk didn’t wait for verbal confirmation, patting Coran a few times on the shoulder before turning and heading for the kitchen. Aileen couldn’t be sure but she thought he might be humming a bouncy tune.

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Coran produced a fork from an inside pocket of his fitted coat, jabbing it into one of the wiggly bits of the lunch. It pulled free with a terribly wet noise that made Aileen’s stomach sink. “Here we are, Shiro. Say ahh.”

The former Garrison golden boy took a step back, struggling to keep his face neutral. “No." 

“Come now, don’t be picky,” Coran frowned, holding out the fork. “Open the bay doors for the food lion!”

The blonde cadet turned slowly, looking over her shoulder to the Red and Blue Paladins. Keith had carefully maintained his neutral face as the scene unfolded but Aileen could see it was a losing battle in the twitch at his eyebrow and the corner of his mouth. Lance looked the way Aileen felt, staring in open confusion, mouth slightly ajar. The two made eye contact, Aileen gesturing to Coran’s attempts to feed a grown man. Lost for words Lance shrugged.

“No,” Shiro repeated, lifting a hand to block the fork from coming any closer to his face. “We’re not doing that. It’s not happening, Coran.” To punctuate his point, Shiro carefully pushed the fork away. “I’m going to find Pidge.”

“You’re running away!” Aileen snickered. Shiro turned, a twinkle in his eye she was used to seeing on her brothers’ faces and the blonde realized her mistake.

“Well,” the Black Paladin began even as he turned away from the table. “Since I’m not eating that means there’s plenty for you.”

With Shiro’s back to her and his long strides quickly closing the distance to the door Aileen couldn’t be sure, but she was almost certain that he’d chuckled. The teenager placed a hand to her chest, unsure if she felt betrayed or minorly relieved that he could act so casual.

Lance leaned forward, peeking past her shoulder to squint suspiciously at the Paladin Lunch. He was silent for a moment, shifting his gaze over to watch her face. “Are you going to eat that?”

“No!” Aileen’s arm shot out, snagging the taller boy about the shoulders and herding him in front of her. “You eat it. You’re the Paladin.”

A small scuffle erupted, neither teenager wanting to find themself the next focus of Coran’s attention. The last thing Shiro heard before the door closed behind him was the sound of a shoe connecting with Paladin armor and Lance’s offended yelp.

Shiro sighed, leaning back against the wall beside the door. The sounds coming from the dining hall were muffled enough now to be ignored. The pilot sighed, breathing out slowly and feeling some of the tension dropping from his shoulders. The hand not holding his helmet lifted, fingers pressing against his eyelids until he saw spots.

_“What do you remember?”_

Aileen had been searching for something. Shiro had seen it in the way she’d watched his face, she’d wanted answers or a sign that he was aware of...something. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it was.

Remembering his time with the Galra came easy- too easy. The memories would lurk at the back of his mind, returning unbidden whenever Shiro tried to sleep. Trying to remember something from before Kerberos was like searching a room in the dark. Shapes and vague emotions but finding anything clear and focused was pure chance.

White metal hallways that must have belonged to the Garrison, brightly lit by fluorescent bulbs. Shiro could feel the familiar weight and fit of the uniform. It was oddly comforting even as a memory. Matt walked several steps ahead of him, turned around to face him as he talked. The Holt’s arms were spread wide as he spoke animatedly about something Shiro couldn't remember. To his right…? A smile on a face he couldn't see clearly; wide and crooked, tipped higher on one side, and showing teeth. The feeling of a hand on his arm just above his elbow.

Shiro lowered the hand from his face, frowning. Spots danced in front of his vision, slowly clearing away. It wasn't fair that everything he wanted to forget came so easily and everything he wanted so desperately to remember kept slipping through his fingers. The pilot closed his hand, thoughts rolling to a stop as footsteps from the end of the hall caught his attention.

Ren rounded the corner just in time to catch Shiro’s eyes. The mechanic hesitated, faltering for half a step before stuffing her hands into her pockets and continuing to close the distance between them. “Shiro.”

“Ser,” the pilot greeted, stepping away from the wall. Shiro paused, glancing down at the brunette as a thought occurred to him. Something her cousin had said in passing that now stuck out in his mind. “Is it- I mean I never really asked. Is it okay to call you that?”

Ren’s eyebrow ticked up, watching his face from the corner of her eye before shrugging. “Shiro, I don't care what you call me.” They fell into step with casual ease, Shiro once again reminded of Garrison hallways. “Besides, it's not like I ever asked if I could call you ‘Shiro’. It's what Matt used and I just sort of accepted it.”

The Black Paladin gave a quiet chuckle, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. “I'm glad you did,” he admitted, the smallest smile tugging at his lips. “I don't think anyone calls me by my first name anymore.”

“Not a fan of ‘Takashi’?” Ren asked, a playful upward tilt to her mouth.

“Uh,” Shiro turned his head to cough, neck feeling hot. There was a flash in the back of his mind- closed blinds and patterned sheets- gone as quick as it came. “No one ever says it right.”

“I can't help the accent!” Ren feigned offense, bumping his arm with an elbow.

“You don't have an accent?” Shiro pointed out, confused.

“Well not now,” the mechanic made a face, crinkling her nose as she frowned. “But you never did let me forget how terrible my pronunciation was.”

“Wait,” Shiro turned his head to look over at the brunette, somewhere between surprised and skeptic. “You speak Japanese?”

“Not according to you,” Ren stuck out her tongue between her teeth. “And only about as well as Matt butchers French.”

The pilot snorted, nearly choking on the sudden bout of laughter that threatened to escape him. “I'm glad I don't remember that.”

Ren flinched, dragging a hand down her face. “Shit, Shiro. I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Shiro reached out, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Ser.” When she turned just enough to look him in the eye the Paladin gave the best smile he could manage. “I like hearing about these things. It’s good to be reminded of something before the Galra.”

Ren was quiet for several heartbeats, something unreadable in her eyes, before she sighed. “You’re killing me, Smalls.”

“Sm-” the Black Paladin blinked as he dropped the hand from her shoulders. “That’s a reference.”

“Of course you remember the fucking _Sandlot_ ,” The mechanic snorted, shaking her head. She reached out, smacking the back of her hand against his chest, then wincing as she realized it was the injured one. “Where the hell are we going anyway?”

Shiro stopped short, watching the brunette walk several paces ahead of him. “You don’t know where you’re going?”

Ren turned back to face him, hands on her hips. She tipped her head up, eyes watching his face as she tried to gauge how serious he was. “I was following you.”

One corner of Shiro’s mouth twitched as the only giveaway that he was teasing. The tone of his voice holding steadily at surprised and beginning to border into concerned. “But what if I was following you?”

“You nerd!” The former Tech Sergeant rolled her eyes. “Where are we going?”

The pilot grinned as he started walking again, looking so much like the man Ren remembered. “We’re going to find Pidge.”

The absent Green Paladin had taken refuge in what was the castle’s equivalent of the medbay. The ring of pods that once held only Allura and Coran were now full of rescued Galran prisoners, seemingly sleeping peacefully as their injuries healed. Pidge was seated next to the base of one of the pods, straight legged and heels tapping a random pattern against the polished floor.

“I think,” Shiro commented as he and Ren stepped into the room, half startling the youngest Paladin. “That you’re more anxious than I am.”

Pidge frowned, head turning to look at the sleeping alien inside the pod. “These guys know something about Matt. They have to.”

“So no news yet, pigeon?” Ren asked stepping into the center of the room and turning slowly to survey the ring of healing pods. None of the occupants stirred and from this distance she found it difficult to tell if they were even breathing.

The Green Paladin turned just enough to send the taller brunette woman a sour look over the top of glasses frames. “You know I hate that nickname, Ren.”

“Uh huh,” Ren responded, unconvinced. “Except you’ve been calling yourself ‘Pidge’ for the past year, so…”

Unable to form a convincing retort Pidge simply huffed grumpily, arms crossing.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the mechanic turned to face the bespectacled Paladin, grin sliding across her lips. “Would you prefer something else? Pidgey-pie? Green bean?”

Pidge reached up, adjusting the glasses to sit more comfortably, lenses flashing. “Ser-bear.”

“Oh!” Ren took a step back, placing a hand to her chest as if she had been struck. “You little-" 

Steam hissed from one of the nearest pods, effectively ending the conversation. All three humans stopped, heads turning to face the source of the sound as the clear front panel dissolved to allow the alien to stumble free. He seemed groggy, breathing slowly as his eyes traveled the room. Shiro moved to steady him but the alien held up one of his many hands, stopping the Paladin short. 

“Peace, Champion,” he spoke in a voice that was quiet, scratchy around the edges as if it had been a long time since he’d been able to use it. “I need no assistance. Though I bid you see to the others.”

One by one the remaining pods hissed, slowly releasing the other captives from their healing confines. Pidge scrambled upright, moving away as the other aliens began to move. All moved slowly, several rubbing at their eyes like overtired toddlers.

 

* * *

 

Back in the dining hall Hunk had finally returned from the kitchens with food that looked more familiar as the humans knew it, odd colors aside. Both Lance and Keith grabbed a bowl as soon as it touched the table, excitedly shovelling food into their mouths. They looked for all the world like normal teenage boys, like this was a personal day at the Garrison mess hall instead some fancy alien dining room light years away from home.

“Aileen?”

The blonde blinked, shaking free from her thoughts, to find Hunk holding out one of the few bowls the other two boys hadn’t claimed for her. “Oh, thanks, Hunk.” She considered the bowl now in her hands for a moment, idly tapping her fork against the rim. “Hey, not to discount your cooking or anything- this looks great- but do you think it’s safe to eat?”

Hunk spared a glance at Lance and Keith, who were now fork-battling over what Aileen could only consider an extremely impromptu risotto. “I mean, they might choke…”

“Well, yeah,” Aileen agreed, “But like we’re on an alien planet, where no human has ever been before. What if we’re allergic or something?”

“Oh, I actually know this one!” Hunk’s face lit up with underlying excitement before sliding into a more sheepish expression. “Well, sort of. Remember when we first got here and the castle scanned us? Well Pidge and I have a theory that it sort of incorporated us into the castle’s systems. I mean, the kitchen can’t give me any recipes except in what I guess is Altean but it can scan any outside food brought in and sort of ding at you if you can eat it.”

Aileen squinted skeptically, even as she lifted her fork to take a bite. Whatever it was tasted sort of like one of those exotic fruits she and Ren had bought on a whim. “What do you mean incorporated?” 

The Yellow Paladin shrugged his shoulders. “Well, you said it yourself. No human’s ever been this far. We’ve never even left our own solar system before; that’s why Kerberos was such a big deal. What’re the chances the Princess and Coran speak English?”

Aileen stopped chewing mid-bite. “You think the caste is translating for us?”

“Good news, everyone,” Allura smiled as she stepped into the dining hall. The Princess paused briefly, watching for a moment as the Red and Blue Paladins finished the last of their food. Turning to her Advisor Allura mirrored a gesture used by the human mechanic, bumping against him with her elbow. “They like the Paladin Lunch.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Coran sniffed.

“What’s the news?” Lance asked, mouth still full.

“The final Nebulon Booster is ready. We can leave Planet Arus tomorrow morning.” The Altean woman’s grin turned sharp, blue eyes glinting. “We can finally take the fight to Zarkon.”

Nearly the same instant the Galran Emperor’s name was said and alarm sounded in the room, flashing everything red. Allura’s eyes narrowed as she turned, waving a hand as she moved. High on the dining hall’s far wall a large screen appeared, showing a view outside the castle’s walls, near the main entrance. A small alien moved quickly across the screen, ducking between the rock piles. He looked to be a sort of cross between a snail and lizard, large horns or maybe a shell curling around his head. In his tiny little hands he held what seemed to be a crude sword.

“What is it?” Keith asked, watching as the alien let out a shout and darted to another rocky area.

“Anything but subtle,” Aileen muttered as the alien screamed and moved again.

“I don’t know,” Allura frowned, fingers curling under her chin as she considered. “A local Arusian? He’s approaching the castle.”

“Does he even know how to use that?” the blonde demanded, pointing at the screen as the Arusian moved again, this time waving his sword in the air as he screamed.

“Aww,” Hunk cooed, hands on his cheeks. “He’s adorable. Let’s go say hi!”

“He doesn’t look too dangerous,” Lance agreed, an amused smile forming. “He’s like half the size of Pidge.”

Keith’s fingers twitched, Bayard forming in his hand. “You never know…”

“No,” Allura insisted, voice firm. “Alteans believe in peace first.” 

Aileen arched an eyebrow. “You put Lance in a submission hold the instant you saw him.” 

The Princess straightened, needlessly smoothing the fabric of her dress. “Those were different circumstances. As it is, we should be sure to greet them proper.”

Keith humpf-ed as the group moved towards the door. “I just don’t think we should take any chances.”

“Well,” Aileen offered with a shrug. “He’s small enough, you could punt him like a football if he tries anything.”

“Never liked football,” the Red Paladin grumped.

The towering doors to the Castle of Lions slid open with silent ease, allowing the warm wind of Arus to blow through the main hall. The Arusian was nowhere to be seen when the group stepped out in the sunlight, but he could be heard breathing from inside a nearby bush.

“Hello there,” Allura smiled, bending over to be closer to eye level with the alien in the bush. “We know you’re there. Worry not, no harm will come to you.”

The Arusian lept from the bush, fast enough for Aileen to be impressed, and flipped himself into a defensive position. He held his sword before him, looking much more capable of using it than he had before.

“Wait,” Keith’s arm shot out, blocking the Princess as he stepped in front of her. His eyes narrowed, Bayard raised to counter if the Arusian attacked. “He could be dangerous. Drop your weapon.”

“No one takes Klaizap’s weapon!” The Arusian hissed, pointing his sword at the Red Paladin.

“Keith, put that away,” Allura scolded, placing a hand on the Red Paladin’s arm and gently lowering it. From behind the Princess Aileen rolled her eyes. “Please, kind sir, accept our humble apologies.” 

Appeased, Klaizap seemed to relax. His stance was still defensive but he was no longer poised to attack. “I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors! Our village is over Gazrel Hill, yonder. I have come seeking answers as to why the Lion Goddess is angered so with her followers.”

“Followers?” Coran repeated, confused.

“Lion Goddess?” Hunk asked as Lance squinted, visibly perturbed.

Klaizap turned, gesturing to a large, flat rock. On it, under the vines and moss, was a carving nearly twice as high as the Arusian. It showed what seemed to be a lioness, clothed in flowing robes, with light radiating from her and several Arusians kneeling in worship. “The one the Ancients spoke of.”

“What makes you think she’s angered?” Allura asked, eyes sweeping over the carving before meeting the small alien’s gaze.

The Arusian’s eyes widened, surprise covering his face. “Have you not seen? Destruction is everywhere! In the past few suns fire has rained from the heavens and a giant has danced in the sky.”

Hunk leaned over to Lance, the hand in front of his mouth doing nothing to muffle his stage whisper. “I think he’s talking about Voltron.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “I got that.”

“You haven’t angered the Lion Goddess,” Allura smiled, the barest hint of good natured laughter in her voice.

Klaizap looked skeptic. “How can you be certain?”

“Because I am Allura,” the Princess lifted an arm, gesturing to the Castle of Lions towering above them. “And this is my castle.”

The Arusian gasped, immediately dropping to his knees and lowering himself into a reverent bow. “Lion Goddess!”

“Are you serious?” Aileen muttered, expression flat. “She’s a goddess now?” 

If Allura heard the blonde’s comment she didn’t acknowledge it, instead continuing to speak. “Please, bravest warrior, stand. Lead us to your village so that we may meet our neighbors.”

“What, seriously?” Keith side-eyed the Princess, barely turning his head to face her. “What about our mission to leave the planet and fight Zarkon?”

“Arus has been our host for 10,000 years,” Allura reminded him. “We owe these people much. The least we can do is offer our gratitude before leaving.”

 

* * *

 

In the medbay blankets had been disbursed to the former captives, Ren and Pidge handing out cups of what was hopefully the Altean equivalent of tea. Shiro was helping the last of the captives- some sort of cat-penguin-centipede as tall as the Paladin was- from the healing pod.

“How long were you guys held prisoner?” Pidge asked the first alien to awaken. From her spot behind the Paladin Ren did her best to not grimace at the bluntness of the question.

The alien stared into his cup, watching the pale liquid as he spoke. “Years. Some decades even. It’s hard to tell. Time becomes meaningless when nothing changes.”

Despite the gravity of his words Pidge perked up. “Then you must have been there when my family was captured! Sam and Matt Holt?”

“I never knew their names,” he admitted, taking a long drink from the cup in his hands. “But I remember the day the Champion was brought to us. Oh yes.”

An involuntary shudder moved down Ren’s spine as the alien spoke. Something like fear in his words put her on edge, unease settling heavy in the pit of her stomach.

“Champion,” Shiro repeated, eyebrows knitting together as if he’d picked up on the emotions surrounding the word. The fear and reverence with which it was said. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

The former prisoner’s eyes widened and several of the others turned to look at the Paladin. “You really don’t remember? Unbelieveable. You were _legendary_. A gladiator of unparalleled fighting skills and bloodlust.”

“I’m sorry,” Ren interrupted, holding up a hand. It was impossible to ignore the way Shiro had gone pale. “Bloodlust? Shiro?”

“Oh yes,” the alien nodded, turning the cup around in his hands. “The Champion was undefeated in the ring. The day he arrived he defeated an infamous gladiator known as Myzax, wrenching the title of Champion for his own.”

“Bloodlust,” the mechanic repeated, mind refusing to move past the word.

“Indeed,” the alien agreed. “I was there, as was the young Earthling. We were to be forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day we were set to face Myzax, a vile beast who reveled in pain and death. Many thought he could never be defeated, none held hope of surviving the encounter. Your ‘Matt’ was to be the first sent to fight and he knew what fate awaited him.” The former prisoner sighed, eyes closing for a moment as he recounted the memory. “I am no stranger to fear. But nothing could compare to the sight of the man who would be Champion, wrestling the blade for his own. So thirsty for blood that no thought was spared to injuring his fellow Earthling.”

Pidge took a step back, knocking into Ren, eyes sharp as daggers when they found Shiro’s face. “You injured my brother?!” The Green Paladin’s shoulders rose, teeth clenching. “Why?!”

“I…” The Black Paladin’s eyes traveled from Pidge’s face, to Ren’s lingering for a moment as if trying to understand, then sweeping over to the alien that had accused him. “No. No, that can’t be right. Matt’s my friend.”

“I was there,” the alien said gravely. “We all were.”

“No…” The word fell from Shiro’s lips, so quiet and desperate that it was nearly lost to the expanse of the medbay.

“You-” Pidge cut the words short, forcing out a steadying breath before facing the alien. “After my brother was injured, what happened to him? Where was he taken?”

The alien shook his head sadly. “I know not.”

Pidge clicked her tongue, fingers raking irritably through wayward hair. The Green Paladin turned on a heel, pacing tight circles around the mechanic. “This can’t be it. It can’t be!”

“K-” Ren bit her lip, hands closing at her sides to keep from reaching out to the smaller brunette. “Pidge…”

The smallest Paladin stopped mid-step, head snapping towards the door. “The ship!” Pidge whipped around to face Ren, a dangerous sort of glint flashing behind glasses. “If Matt was on the same ship as these guys and Shiro then it might have records of what happened to him!”

“Then we’re going,” Shiro said before Ren had a chance to respond. Determination set his words and the hard line of his stance, but his face was pale and the mechanic could see his hand shaking, even clenched as tight as it was.

Pidge leaned ever-so-slightly past Ren, glowering in the direction of the Black Paladin. “We?”

“He’ll know they layout of the ship better than either of us,” Ren offered, ignoring the little voice in the back of her mind that insisted layout no longer mattered once ships were crashed. “Probably.”

“Us?” The Green Paladin repeated, turning her attention to the mechanic. This time Pidge’s expression held more open confusion than hostility.

“What, did you think I was going to sit this out?”

 

* * *

 

The Arusian village sat atop a ridge, forest in the distance. Many houses sat close together, forming a wide ring around what must have served as the center of town. Every Arusian who lived there was packed into the open area, clamoring excitedly to see their Lion Goddess and her companions.

“Oh, great and beautiful Lion Goddess,” a taller Arusian in fine clothes and gilded jewelry bowed low before Allura. “I am the King of the Arusians. Please accept our deepest apologies. We formally beg your forgiveness with this- our traditional Dance of Apology!”

“Seriously?” Aileen grumbled, hands on her hips. “Like lost Princess isn’t enough, they’ve got to make her a goddess too?”

“Let it go,” Keith said quietly, awkwardly patting the blonde on the shoulder. 

“I will not,” Aileen hissed, watching as another Arusian scrambled forward and poised herself to begin dancing. Music began, starting with the line of drums to their left and the Arusian girl started the dance, hopping and wiggling with the music.

“Oh, ah,” Allura blinked, carefully adjusting her diplomatic smile. “Please, there’s no need for all of this.” 

“Munto!” The King called out, freezing the dancer on her toes, poised awkwardly. “The Lion Goddess has refused our apology dance!” He turned to the crowd, gesturing with wide, sweeping arms. “Start the sacrificial fires! We must atone for our wrong doings by throwing ourselves upon the blaze.”

“No!” The Altean Princess shouted, nearly choking on the word as fires roared into life on the King’s command. One unlucky Arusian was already tied to a post and being lowered precariously close to the flames. “No, no, please wait! No sacrifices!”

Aileen elbowed the Red Paladin beside her, leaning over to whisper to him but unable to tear her eyes away from the fire. “Does that guy seem way too calm about nearly being barbequed?”

“That’s not how you barbeque,” Keith responded, squinting at the too-calm Arusian. “But yeah, he does.”

“Then,” the Arusian King began slowly, his face lighting up with a large grin. “We may proceed with the dance?”

“Yes,” Allura answered a bit too quickly. “Yes, please.”

The music began again and Munto restarted her dance with ease. The dance continued for a while longer, ending with a reverent bow at Allura’s feet that all the other Arusians mimicked.

“Oh,” Allura placed a hand to her chest. “Please rise, please. There really is no need for this. I am the one that accidentally put you all in danger. If anyone is deserving of an apology it’s you Arusians. I am no goddess, I am Princess Allura of Altea and these,” Allura spread her arms wide, indicating her companions. “Are the Voltron Paladins. Though we came from different worlds and, ah, have very different traditions, we wish to live alongside you as friends.”

“But the robotic angel,” the Arusian King frowned, “Has it not come to destroy us for our immoral ways?”

“Voltron?” the Altean woman blinked. “No, not at all. In fact, Voltron is here to protect you. Let it be known, here and now, that Voltron will protect all the innocent people of the galaxy!”

The Arusians cheered, surging forward in a great wave to amass their affection onto the Princess, the three Paladins, and Coran. Aileen attempted to backpedal, stepping away from the onslaught of tiny aliens and their grabby hands. The blonde girl didn’t make it far before she was swarmed, several Arusians patting gently at her.

“Aw, jeez,” Aileen said, doing her best not to accidentally step on anyone as they surrounded her.

 

* * *

 

In a less green area of the planet, the remains of the Galran ship lay crumbled. Smashed into the ground and barely recognizable as a ship, though the sheer size of it was still intimidating. The cold purple metal of it glinted ominously in the sunlight. Navigating the interior was nearly impossible; at least for the mechanic who lacked any sort of propulsion device that Paladin armor had.

“Maybe you should have stayed outside the ship?” Shiro wondered after the third time Ren had dropped herself from a questionable distance to reach an area the two Paladins found with ease. “You’re starting to limp.”

“I’ll walk it off,” Ren grumped, annoyed that he was right. Her knees were beginning to ache and walking was turning harder than she cared for. “It’s too late now, anyway.”

“This must be the main computer,” Pidge moved forward to inspect the large computer terminal, miraculously still mostly intact. “I wonder if there’s any way to power it up like this?”

The mechanic chewed on her bottom lip, turning slowly to survey the room. To call it in shambles would be an understatement. The ceiling was practically nothing but a large hole, cables and wiring hanging down like heavy vines. Nearly everything aside from the main computer had been smashed. “Not without a battery.”

Pidge slammed a fist against the console. “And it has to be compatible with Galra tech.”

“Power,” Shiro lifted his prosthetic hand, curling the fingers towards his palm. The Black Paladin straightened his hand and a purple glow flared across it, following what might have been lines of circuitry. Shiro stepped forward and placed a hand on the console, Pidge watching wide eyed as the computer flickered into life.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Ren watched as Pidge brought up a second screen, this one the pale blue of Altean technology, and began typing rapidly.

“My dad and Matt’s locations have to be in here somewhere,” the Green Paladin said, eyes never leaving the screen as the progress bar slowly inched forward. “Once we get this all downloaded, I can figure out how to translate it.”

Over the hum of Pidge’s excitement and the tapping of keys another sound erupted, filling the quiet of the abandoned shipwreck. Both Shiro and Ren’s heads snapped skyward, like hunting dogs scenting their prey. The mechanic narrowed her eyes at the bright spot that had appeared in Arus’ skies, visible even in the afternoon light. It grew rapidly larger as they watched and soon the shape of what might have been another ship was discernable.

“Shit,” Ren hissed, running a hand through her hair. “That’s not good.”

“What is it?” Pidge’s attention hadn’t left the Galran computer but there was no mistaking the sudden spike in emotion as Ren cursed. 

“Something big,” Shiro provided, moving to lift his arm from the computer terminal. “Big, Galran, and heading straight for us. We need to move.”

The Green Paladin lifted a hand, smacking Shiro’s still glowing arm back into place. “Don’t move,” Pidge all but snarled, fingers tightening around his own. “I’m not nearly done and we’re not going anywhere until I get this information.”

The progress bar climbed a little higher but a quick glance between the screen and the sky made it clear that whatever was approaching would arrive first.

“Nope,” Ren stepped forward, hooking her arms under Pidge’s own and hefting the smaller brunette bodily away from the computer. “No. Overruled.”

Pidge struggled against the mechanic, kicking and smacking in an attempt to get free, but Ren was already moving for the fastest exit. Shiro had begun moving the moment Ren had scooped up Pidge, already several strides ahead of them. When they approached a makeshift ledge he turned, only to have Pidge shoved into his arms.

“Move,” Ren urged, shoving Pidge’s arms away. “Move!”

Shiro swallowed, hesitating just long enough for Pidge to elbow him in the face. The Black Paladin grunted, fixing his hold on the teenager as he turned away.

“Ren!” Pidge screamed as Shiro’s jetpack fired, propelling them upward. The mechanic grew smaller as they ascended, fear erupting in the pit of the Green Paladin’s stomach, setting insides on fire. “Ren!”

“Okay, Ripley,” Ren licked her lips as she found herself alone in the wrecked ship, Pidge’s shout still echoing from the walls. “New plan. Time to use that brain you’ve been neglecting.”

Once outside of the wrecked Galran ship and back on solid ground Pidge was still attempting to fight free of Shiro’s grip. “Let go of me, Shiro! I need to get back there! The information! Ren! You left her behi-”

“Pidge.” Shiro’s tone was firm, slamming down on the steadily rising panic threatening to bubble out of Pidge. He hadn’t shouted, if anything his voice had fallen below normal speaking level, but there was a certain strength behind the word that made the Green Paladin stop struggling against him. “What good is the information if you kill yourself trying to get it? We have no idea what that thing approaching is, or what it’ll do. Did you really think Ser or I was going to let-”

“Ren isn’t here!” Pidge snapped, cutting his sentence short. The Green Paladin took a shuddering breath before speaking again, calmer this time. “She’s still in the ship. If we really needed to leave that quickly then we shouldn’t have left her behind.”

“I'm sure there's another way-” A shadow passed over the two Paladins, blocking the sunlight, and Shiro felt his heart drop.

Pidge swallowed, eyes widening as realization turned to fear, this time for entirely new reasons. The wind around the shipwreck was beginning to pick up, dust swirling in the air.

“Run.” Shiro grabbed the back of Pidge’s Paladin armor, turning the brunette around as they both began scrambling away from the wreckage. “Run!”

Both Green and Black Paladins began running, sprinting as fast as they could away from the wreckage. It was impossible to ignore the sounds of the new ship’s descent, a loud rumbling overhead more ominous than any storm. It landed directly on top of the wreckage, crushing the metal beneath its weight. The remaining fuel and combustibles ignited, quickly growing into a fireball. Pidge screamed, able to feel the heat of the approaching flames even though Paladin armor. For a moment there was nothing but fire, Shiro’s hand still on Pidge’s shoulder, then a roar as the Green and Black Lions surrounded them.

“Whoa,” Pidge breathed, laying flat on the hard ground and staring up at the Lions surrounding them. “They saved us.”

Shiro pushed himself upright, reaching out to place a hand on Black’s nose. “I didn’t know they could do that.”

The Green Lion rose slightly, leaning over to bop Black with its nose. When the larger Lion didn’t respond Green repeated the motion, a bit more irritated. The Black Lion opened it’s mouth, dumping something onto the ground at the Paladin’s feet.

“Ugh,” groaned the heap that was Ren as she rolled herself onto her back. A bruise was starting to form on the left part of her face and a small cut near her hairline was trickling blood. “Let’s never do that again.” 

“Ren!” Pidge exclaimed, moving to hug the mechanic but then thinking better of it. “You’re alive!”

“I mean technically,” the woman grunted as Shiro pulled her to her feet. Ren opened her mouth to make another grumpy comment but stopped short, swallowing the words down as she finally saw just what had crashed before them. “Oh sweet Jesus. What fresh hell is this?”

As if on cue steam hissed from the seams of the ship, parts of it falling away with ease to reveal...something. The robotic creature stood as tall as Voltron, one arm clearly some form of weapon. The trio watched in horrified apprehension as lights ignited along the length of it until it’s mismatched eyes flared bright.

“Lion!” Shiro shouted, somewhere between pushing and carrying Ren ahead of him towards Black. “Pidge, get in your Lion!”

The two Lions took to the sky, narrowly avoiding the energy orb the creature had lobbed at them. The orb swung around in a tight arc, returning to the creature’s weaponized arm only to be fired again. The Green Lion fired a laser to intercept, only for the strange orb to power through it and crash against the robotic feline.

“Pidge!” Ren shouted over Shiro’s shoulder, holding tightly to the pilot’s chair as the Green Lion crashed back into the ground of Arus and tumbled.

Shiro turned hard on the controls, steering the Black Lion towards the creature. The largest of the Voltron Lions landed with teeth and claws sinking into the mammoth robotic thing. The creature reached back, prying Black free and flinging it away.

_“Lay down some covering fire so they can get away!”_ Keith’s voice sounded loud and clear over the comm’s, even as it felt like Ren’s brain was rattling around inside her skull. The Lions were designed for many things, but active combat with multiple passengers was not one of them. By the time the mechanic could see straight, all five Lions had regrouped and Yellow had managed to knock their opponent to it’s knees. _“Are you guys okay down there?”_

“We’re alive for now,” Shiro responded.

“Speak for yourself,” Ren snarked, frowning. The Black Paladin turned just enough to offer her an apologetic smile. An idea flashed behind his eyes and Shiro took one hand from the controls, reaching up to pull the helmet from his head and offer it to her.

“It’s the best I can do,” and the mechanic snorted, faintly amused, as she took the offered head protection.

_“What’s Ren doing in there?”_ The Blue Paladin’s voice questioned.

“Moonlighting as a pinata.” Ren responded, not missing a beat as she placed the helmet over her head.

_“Guys,”_ Keith interrupted as the giant creature righted itself again. _“Can we focus? Giant monster? What do we do?”_

_“Hit it with everything we’ve got?”_ Lance offered. _“Call it names? Destroy its confidence?”_

“If we want to defeat this thing, we’ll need to fight on equal footing,” Shiro explained, taking the controls proper. “You know what that means- Form Voltron!”

All five Lions took to the sky, flying higher in unison. There was a bright flash of light and...no difference as far as Ren could tell from the cockpit. It must have been different for the Paladins because Shiro sat a little straighter, an air of focus almost tangible around him. The creature stood just as tall before them, the glowing orb of it’s unusual weapon reappearing.

Voltron moved first, narrowly avoiding the orb to throw a punch with the Red Lion arm. The punch was blocked by the creature but Pidge retaliated, swinging in for a sucker punch and knocking their opponent into the mountainside. It stumbled, attempting to recover, but Voltron was waiting to swing both fists at it. The creature blocked with it’s arm, the ground fracturing under the weight of the two giants, and it swung it’s weaponized arm. The orb returned, smashing into Voltron’s back and knocking the giant robot flat. The creature stood, raising it’s weapon high and calling the orb down on Voltron repeatedly, a sound like laughter rumbling from it.

Voltron turned, boosters firing, as it managed to free itself from under the crushing blows. Voltron sped backwards, putting distance between itself and righting itself fully.

_“I thought Voltron was supposed to be the universe’s strongest weapon,”_ Keith demanded of no one in particular as the orb sped past them again.

_“Yeah!”_ Hunk agreed, sounding as stressed as Ren felt. _“Then why are we getting our butts kicked?”_

The creature crashed bodily into Voltron, knocking the robot backwards and earning a shout from all of the occupants. Voltron crashed into the hillside, head tipped backwards to view the Arusian village now sitting precariously near the battle.

“Oh no,” Shiro breathed as realization settled around him. “We have to get away from the village!”

There was a familiar wizzing sound as the orb returned to smack into Voltron headlong, nearly crashing the giant robot into the village. Only quick thinking and equal flying saved the evacuated houses from being crushed. Voltron swerved, flying past the creature before he could attack again and drawing its attention far away from the Arusians.

_“That settles that,”_ Pidge didn’t sound fully convinced. “ _But we’re done for if we can’t find a way to counter.”_

_“Oh, I know!”_ The excitement in Lance’s voice was easily audible, even over the speakers. _“I’m going to power kick that orb thing!"_

_“No,”_ Keith snapped, even as Voltron moved into a ready position. _“The last time you tried to kick anything we fell!”_

_“Quit living in the past!”_

Unfortunately Keith’s concerns proved correct. Though, as far as Ren could tell, the kick had been executed perfectly the orb flew past the outstretched Blue Lion leg and smashed into Voltron’s face. Pidge attempted to fire a counter shot, but instead the wings from Voltron’s back detached to form a shield. Confusion slowed their movements, the monster taking the opportunity to smash the orb against them again. Voltron crashed once again into a rocky outcropping and the Paladins were beginning to panic.

_“What do we do?!”_

_“Every time we focus on the monster the orb gets us, and when we focus on the orb the monster punches us!”_

_“Shiro, we need to move! Shiro?”_

The Black Paladin had gone still in the pilot’s seat, sweat dripping down his chin and breathing choppy. The mechanic watched with growing concern as his eyes swept over the viewport, unfocused but searching.

Ren hesitated, unsure if she should reach out. “Shir-”

“I know that sound,” Shiro said suddenly, absolute certainty in his voice. “I know that weapon from my time in Zarkon’s prison. I know how to beat him!”

The monster came crashing for them, weaponized arm raised like a club to strike. Voltron dodges way, putting itself at the creature’s back as it was the one to crash into the mountainside. It turned back to face Voltron, eyes flashing and orbbed weapon spinning ominously.

“Listen,” Shiro adjusted his grip on the controls, eyes narrowing as he watched the creature. “There’s a loud sound every time it’s weapon fires and every third time it has to recharge. That’s the weak spot, that’s when we strike.”

_“But,”_ Hunk gulped, _“What do we do until then?”_

“Defense! Pidge, we need that shield!” 

The shield appeared just in time to block the creature’s first blow. The force of it pushed Voltron back but the giant robot wasn’t sent sprawling like before, a good sign. The orb swung around to hit again, more force behind it forcing Voltron to take a steadying step back. On the third strike the shield was wretched from Voltron’s hands, crashing in two pieces out of reach.

“Now!” Shiro shouted and Keith brought the Red Lion arm up in response, shooting a laser blast at the creature. The laser hit true and for a moment the creature was lost behind a cloud of dust and smoke. When the cloud cleared the monster was still perfectly intact, only a large scuff showing where Keith’s blow had struck.

The creature wasted no time in retaliating, swinging it’s club-like weapon and sending Voltron stumbling back. A second shot effectively backed Voltron into a corner against one of the mountainsides, leaving the Paladin’s scrambling for a better attack.

Shiro hissed, wincing from being jostled around as well as the sound of his unlucky passenger hitting the floor of the cockpit. “When I fought him before I had a sword.”

_“Where are we going to get that?”_ Pidge demanded, voice cracking.

_“Wait,”_ Keith interrupted, voice oddly calm even as the creature began to approach. _“I think my Lion is telling me what to do.”_

_“Well do it fast!”_ Lance shouted at the same moment Hunk yelled _“Orb! Orb!”_

Keith screamed over the speakers, the sound angry and loud enough to crackle. Underneath it, almost lost to the speaker feedback was a lion’s roar. Voltron moved, slamming Red and Green together and when the red arm pulled away a sword materialized.

“More questions,” Ren mumbled from the floor by the pilot’s seat. She reached up, grabbing the seat by the armrest and pulling herself into a kneeling position, watching as Voltron charged. 

The creature swung its third shot, missing completely. When blade struck metal there was almost no resistance, the monster cut clean through before it could attempt to counter. It sizzled, purple electricity sparking along it’s body before the creature exploded, leaving nothing but scorched earth behind.

 

* * *

 

 

The sun was setting by the time Shiro found Pidge again. The Green Paladin seated on the edge of the broken bridge outside the castle, overlooking the valley. The small brunette looked up as the older Paladin approached, watching silently.

“There you are,” Shiro gave a small smile, taking a seat beside the teenager.

Pidge scooted away slightly, gently jostling the space mice clinging to shirt and lap. “I don’t understand. Why did you hurt my brother? You guys have been friends for years.”

“It’s not that simple,” the Black Paladin answered softly. “I was trying to save him.” Pidge shot him a skeptic look and Shiro continued, “Your father was sent away with the weaker prisoners to a work camp, we lost sight of him nearly as soon as we arrived, but Matt and I were taken to the gladiator arena. We were expected to fight for our lives.”

“And Matt was never a fighter,” Ren spoke as she approached, startling both Paladins and mice. One climbed on to Pidge’s head to shake it’s little fist and squeak irritably at her. The mechanic’s forehead had stopped bleeding but there was still bits of dried blood crusted to her jawline and her bruise was turning purple. “The alien said Matt was supposed to fight first. You took the attention from him.”

Shiro nodded slowly, swallowing before he spoke again. “I did the first thing I could think of. I took the sword from the sentry and I yelled, demanding the fight. I knew Matt would still have to go out there if he could stand so I…” Shiro took a steadying breath, clenching his prosthetic hand. “I’m sorry I hurt your brother, but it was the only thing I could think of to keep him from going out there.”

“You-” Pidge choked on the word, eyes suddenly wet and burning. “You saved him. You hurt him so he wouldn’t have to fight and- and he’s still out there somewhere. I can still find him.” The Green Paladin launched forward, arms wrapping around the pilot and face buried against his chest. “I’m so sorry that I doubted you.”

Shiro relaxed slowly, one hand coming to rest on the teenager’s shoulder. “You had a right to be worried, it wasn’t a good situation.” He paused, a smile slowly spreading across his face as he spoke. “But I do know that your father and brother would be proud of you, Katie. You’ve come a long way.”

Pidge froze, slowly turning to look up, eyes wide behind glasses frames and unshed tears still stinging. “You...know?”

“Of course,” The Black Paladin’s hand moved from her shoulder to her hair, ruffling it. “Only one other person could look so much like Matt. You even cut your hair the same way.”

“Um,” Pidge hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at Ren.

“Don’t worry,” Shiro said, dropping his hand from her hair. “Your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell anyone. And I’m sure Ser already knew.”

“Unfortunately,” the mechanic commented, pulling her lighter from her pocket. Pidge’s eyes narrowed and Ren sighed, replacing the lighter in the pocket it had come from. “She’s always been a handful.”

Pidge stuck her tongue out and the space mice mimicked the gesture. “Who do you think I learned it from?”

“Matt,” Ren answered without hesitation.


	11. The Tower [Part One]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of these days I'll be out of Season One and not feel so horribly behind as the series continues. This is not that day.  
> Anyway, a big thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review or a kudos! They really motivate me and I love hearing what everyone thinks.

 

 

> **XVI. The Tower = chaos, destruction, misuse of power, ignorance**

  
The entirety of the Arusian village had filed into the main hall of the Castle of Lions, the large number of short aliens doing little to make the expansive room feel crowded.

“Though, I mean, they’re not really aliens are they?” Ren asked idly from her spot against one of the far walls, watching the Arusians and the scattered Paladins mingle. “This is their home planet so they wouldn't be aliens.”

Aileen gave her cousin a dubious look, glancing up from the brightly colored liquid in the cup she was holding. “How much of this pink stuff have you had already, Ren?”

The mechanic frowned, gesturing over to the large staircase where the Arusian King and several of his subjects were re-enacting the most recent battle by stacking on each other's shoulders and slap fighting. “Not enough to deal with this. Do we need a recap? It just happened a few hours ago.”

“To be fair, most of us were in a cave and not sitting the equivalent of court-side at a championship game,” the teenager reminded, watching from the corner of her eye as the older woman grimaced and rolled her shoulders.

“Yeah, and I still hurt,” Ren paused as a tray filled with cups floated past, zipping along as if it had a schedule to keep. She followed the movement with her eyes until one of the Arusians leaped, grabbing ahold of it and dangling a few short feet off the ground. “I don't know if I can even get a good buzz from something that looks like liquid Peeps bunnies. I would kill for a good buzz right about now.”

Aileen’s gaze flicked down to the cup in her hands. The pink liquid reflected the light of the room, sparkling and shifting through paler shades of pink and murky shades of purple where it settled at the bottom of the cup. “I saw Coran put it on his face earlier. I'm not sure we should be drinking it at all.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” The Princess’ voice cut through the chatter of the room with ease, despite the lack of a microphone. Her tone was appreciative and friendly though her face briefly flashed with confusion as she fished for an appropriate adjective. “For such a...lovely and enthusiastic performance.”

The Arusian King beamed at the praise, not noticing or perhaps simply ignoring the hesitation to Allura’s complements.

“It is with great sorrow and a heavy heart that we must leave you,” Allura continued, turning to face the crowd to convey her sincerity. “But Zarkon will not rest and we must take the fight to him.”

“Are we?” Aileen asked, arching an eyebrow. “I mean, we didn’t know these guys existed before like today. Can we really be that upset?”

“Yeah, but you’re not supposed to tell them that,” Ren responded as Allura continued, presenting the Arusian monarch with some sort of communication device. “Especially not if you’re trying for a moral boost.”

“Fair,” the teenager conceded, “I just hope they don’t try to start fighting too. They’re a bit...squishy.”

The brunette hummed in response, turning her attention out to the crowd again. Lance, Hunk, and Keith were all in a group somewhere near the center of the room. Amazingly the Red and Blue Paladins seemed to be holding a normal conversation, without one attempting to punch the other; even if Keith was looking increasingly confused. Eventually Lance sighed, shoulders drooping dramatically, and changed the subject. Whatever they were talking about- and Ren was more than a little annoyed that she couldn’t hear despite searching for the acoustic sweet spot- was enough for Keith to actually laugh. It was good to see them getting along.

Her attention turned, finding Shiro leaning against the wall near the entryway with his arm crossed, looking irritable and antsy. Coran appeared at his elbow with a glass of the pink stuff. If Ren had to guess the Royal Advisor was attempting to convince Shiro to relax and have a drink, to enjoy the party a bit.

Ren smiled. The Garrison had never been one for formal parties, largely due to Iverson’s seething dislike of them, but Shiro had always navigated the casual red-solo-cup type of parties with an adaptive sort of ease that neither her nor Matt had ever fully grasped. She could still imagine it, even if that seemed to have changed now too.

Shiro excused himself from the conversation quickly, turning for the open door of the castle. Beyond it the sun had set and if she strained Ren could just see a few of the unfamiliar stars of the Arus sky. When her attention turned back to the wide expanse of the room the conversation between the primary color Paladins seemed to have stalled out. In fact they were back to being grim faced and subdued, with Lance breaking off from the group.

Ren elbowed her cousin, nodding in the direction of the retreating Blue Paladin. “Go after him.”

Aileen frowned, “What? Why do I have to?”

“Because,” the mechanic responded and for a moment Aileen was certain that was all she would say. “I’m a grown adult and if I start following teenage boys into dark hallways it’s creepy.”

The blonde snorted, dropping her cup onto one of the floating trays as it passed. “I don’t know about ‘grown’, Ren. How often have you lived on fruit snacks and apple jacks?”

“Shoo,” Ren countered, waving a hand.

Aileen blew a raspberry, though she still moved from the corner they occupied and threaded her way through the crowd of Arusians to follow Lance. “Do as I say, not as I do, Lee. I’m only seven years older than you but I got hit by a car so I can spout off life advice like I’m 45.”

“I can hear you!”

The teenager laughed and picked up her speed, jogging from the room. Lance was quick, even when he wasn’t actively trying to be, but he also wasn’t working very hard at not being found or followed. It would have been easy enough to catch up even if he hadn’t decided to camp out in the Navigation Bay.

“Hey there, sailor,” Aileen greeted, stuffing her hands into her pockets and coming to a stop roughly an arm’s length behind the now seated Blue Paladin. “Come here often?”

If she didn’t already know he was upset the fact that Lance didn’t take the easy bait would have been a red flag. Lance turned his head just enough to squint dubiously over his shoulder at the blonde and said nothing.

“Sailor? Because water and the Blu- you know what? I don’t have to explain my choices to you.”

“Why are you here?” the Paladin asked finally, turning away from her and hunching his shoulders as if he could physically block her presence.

For half a second Aileen considered being upfront about her cousin sending her after him. “It’s not like you to bail on a party where you could easily be the center of attention.”

Though she could no longer see his face, Aileen was sure he was pouting- or whatever the irritated equivalent was. She could read it in the way his shoulders rose a little higher and the way he tucked his legs closer. For such a lanky guy he was doing an awfully good pillbug impersonation.

Aileen chewed on the inside of her cheek, considering the other teenager as he chose to remain silent. She didn’t have a good enough read on Lance yet; it hadn’t been all that long since they had been forced to interact as a group. She knew how to handle a grumpy Pidge, when to start handing Ren bottles of water instead of beer cans. Hell, she even knew that the only way Keith would even entertain the idea of talking about anything resembling feelings was to give him something to beat up first.

But Lance? This was her first time seeing past his casual bravado.

“Hello, hello.” The only sign that the mustached Altean had joined them was his sudden, silent presence at Aileen’s side. The blonde made a note to learn his secrets. “Is this a private party?”

Coran adjusted his lapels and looked between the two teenagers. If he were anyone else Aileen would have suspected the question contained more innuendo, but the older man’s expression was perfectly innocent.

“Have a seat, Coran,” the girl shrugged her shoulders. “We were just, eh, talking?”

The Blue Paladin sighed, running a hand down his face as he relaxed, or simply gave up the idea of being left alone. “Coran? How far away is Earth?”

“I can show you!” Coran hopped down the step Lance was seated on and waved a hand to produce a holographic map of the galaxy. He bent over to squint at the map, twisting idly at one end of his moustache. “Ah, here we are!” The Royal Aide pointed out the planet with a flourish. “Earth is here, and we’re aaaaall-” he dragged out the word as he searched the map, scrolling for what felt like minutes. “Aaaall the way...over...aaaalll the waaay…”

“We get it,” Aileen interrupted before Coran could even locate Arus.

“It’s so far away,” Lance muttered, sounding small. “Like I can’t even imagine that distance. It’s so far way and-” He cut off, scrubbing at his face and muttering something into his hands.

“You miss it,” Coran nodded solemnly.

“Yes,” Lance choked on the word and behind him Aileen shifted uncomfortably. “I miss it. And, yeah, big things like my family but also stupid little things like rain or my favorite food or the sound of cooking from another room with the radio playing.”

“I understand,” both Aileen and Coran responded together. The two exchanged a look and the older man nodded for the blonde to continue.

Aileen sighed, rubbing a hand across the back of her neck. “I come from a big family, right? And there's almost enough people here to make up for it but this place is so…” she groped for the right word, making some unclear hand gesture. “Big. It's so big and quiet. It's so quiet sometimes that it feels like no one is here and I'm alone. I've never been alone-”

The teenager cut herself off, shaking her head and crossing her arms across her chest.

Coran nodded solemnly, “It's all the little things you never think about that you end up missing the most.”

Silence settled on the room again for an entirely new reason. Their home was unimaginably far away, with all the people and places they cared about. There was no way of knowing when they would see home again, but eventually they could. It would still be there. It was a small, stinging comfort but it was one the Alteans could never have.

Lance winced, “Aw, Coran, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to whine when- I mean, we don't have to talk about Earth.”

“Not at all,” the man insisted, sounding chipper. It didn’t reach his eyes. “I quite enjoy it. Tell me, what is ‘rain’?”

 

* * *

 

“You can’t leave,” both Ren and Keith spoke in perfect sync. Teenager and woman stood shoulder to shoulder in an unintentional display of unison, arms crossed and frowning. Though while Ren’s seemed to be more disapproving Keith was clearly all anger and irritation.

Pidge bristled, shoulders rising in preparation for the impending argument. “You can’t tell me what to do!” The shorter teenager snapped at Keith, amber eyes sliding over to the mechanic, searching her face. “And I thought you would understand. Matt is your best friend! Doesn’t that mean anything to you? This is the best lead we’ve had in over a year. I’m not going to leave a chance to find my family!”

“You’re not the only one with a family!” The words tore from Keith’s mouth with such ferocity that Hunk jolted in alarm. “If you leave, we can’t form Voltron. Without Voltron we can’t defend the universe. All these Arusians have a family, everyone here has a family. We-” the Red Paladin cut himself short, clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth.

“Yeah!” Hunk interrupted before he could think better of it, sweating slightly as all attention turned to him. “I have a family back on Earth. A big one and I’d really, you know, like to be with them right now. Is that-?” The engineer glanced around apprehensively, twiddling his fingers. “Is that like a thing that could happen? Now maybe? Because Lance, too,-”

“You want to leave too?!” Any hope that this situation could be salvaged visibly drained from Allura’s face as Hunk nodded emphatically.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong,” the Yellow Paladin said quickly, “Voltron is super cool and all but we never signed up for this. I don’t want to spend my whole life in space fighting aliens.”

Keith audibly growled, fingers tightening around his arms with enough strength that Ren could hear the squeal of his gloves against the armor plating. Ren turned to face the boy but the sudden movement seemed to spur the teenager into action. Keith stepped forward, one arm swinging out in a violent motion, as he put himself in Pidge’s personal space. “You’re putting the lives of two people over everyone else in the universe!”

“Keith!” Shiro’s hand shot out, grabbing the Red Paladin by the arm and carefully steering him away from the shorter teenager. Pidge had straightened to full height, eyes like daggers and fists clenched. Though his initial shout had been sharp, when the Black Paladin spoke next his voice was gentle. “That’s not how a team works. People have to want to be a part of it.” Shiro sighed, turning his head to look down at Pidge. There was no anger in his face, only concern and an underlying emotion Pidge refused to dwell on. “We won’t stop you if you want to leave, but please, think about what you’re doing.”

“This isn’t some impromptu road trip two states over for ribs and beer, Shiro,” Ren interrupted. Her voice lacked the same red hot fire Keith’s had, but it was still uncomfortably firm. The same emotion Pidge had seen on Shiro lurked behind the mechanic’s eyes and Pidge refused to make eye contact. “This is space. Going out there, there’s no guarantee of coming back! You can’t-”

“You’re not my mother, Ren!” The Green Paladin bristled, temper finally flaring into words. “You don’t get to decide what I do!”

“No, I’m not,” Ren agreed cooly, voice in stark contrast to the way the words seemed to burn her throat. They sat sharp and acidic on the back of her tongue, refusing to be swallowed down now that she had begun speaking. “Your mother is back home wondering what happened to her last child.”

Pidge twitched visibly but didn’t back down, posture remaining rigid and fists clenched. There was no sound in the room save for the pounding of Ren’s heart in her ears. The image of one of those little transport ships taking off wouldn’t leave her mind. It replayed again and again, overlapping with the day the Kerberos mission launched.

“If you leave,” the mechanic spoke, putting words to the fear threatening to suffocate her. It lurked like a monster, ravenous and hungry, in the peripheral of her mind. “You’ll never come back.”

The words hung in the air like a prophecy, and for a moment no one dared speak. Pidge straightened, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes even as she stepped with determination passed the mechanic. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion. It’s not like you don’t have the extra help.”

Ren moved to follow, only to be stopped short as Shiro’s arm blocked her advance.

“You can’t force Pidge to stay, Ser,” he said, voice soft. There was a tightness to his expression, even as he tried to smile for her. “This is something Pidge has to decide alone.”

“Bullshit,” the mechanic slapped his arm away from her, temper flaring. “You’re letting Pidge go off to die, Shiro. How are you okay with that?”

“Now, wait just a tick,” Allura interrupted and the same moment Hunk balked, “No one said anything about going off to die.”

“What do you think will happen?” Ren drug her hands down her face, beginning to pace the width of the hallway like a caged tiger. “Pidge is going out in space, without a Lion, without a definitive direction, _without supplies_.”

It was suddenly hard to breathe, even the massive expanse of the castle suddenly felt too small. The mechanic was aware, as if from far away, that Shiro was only trying to soothe her fears; but that was all she could focus on. If Pidge left and something happened it would be her fault. Ren had done nothing to stop Pidge- stop _Katie_ \- from joining the Garrison, she hadn’t stopped a bunch of untrained teenagers from getting involved in an _alien conspiracy_ , and she had _dragged_ her cousin away from safety and directly into danger.

Ren had done nothing to prevent the situation from barreling headlong into a war where they were all in over their heads. If anything happened it would be _her fault_.

The entire castle shook and it wasn’t until the dust fell from the ceiling and the other occupants stumbled did the mechanic realize that it wasn’t simply her growing panic making the room spin. Every single light in the room flickered twice and then died, shrouding the castle in darkness. The only light now coming from the night sky outside the open door.

“What was that?” Ren demanded, her attention snapping to the new problem. The one she might be able to fix. Or, barring that, punch. “What happened?”

Keith was cursing under his breath, rubbing his forehead as Hunk patted him awkwardly on the back. Shiro had an arm around the Princess’ shoulders, one of her hands in his as the pilot helped her to her feet.

“I don’t…” Allura began, eyes searching the darkened room. “Something must have happened to the power crystal.”

“That big thing?” Keith waved off the Yellow Paladin’s patting. “In the Navigation Bay?”

“It sounded like an explosion,” Hunk added, looking pale in the moonlight. “They don’t just...explode, right?”

“No!” Allura gasped, looking scandalized. “Of course not. Something must have- Where’s Coran?”

“He went after Lee to go find Lance,” Ren said, looking in the direction they had left despite not being able to see much in the darkness. Silhouetted in the moonlight from the doorway, the mechanic straightened. “Shit, shit, _shit_.”

Allura’s eyes widened, impossibly blue points in the darkness. “They weren’t!”

“If they weren’t,” the brunette took off, as fast as her legs would allow. “Then they were close enough to worry about!”


	12. The Tower [Part Two]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just won't eeeend. It's going to be a total of three parts before The Tower is completed.
> 
> On a different note, I completely missed the first birthday of this fic. Oops. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, review, and leave kudos over the past year. It really means so much to me to know that people are enjoying my work.
> 
> Special shout out to Shadesyste over on tumblr who drew me FANART. My first ever fanart from a reader I'm so touched. I'm not smart enough to add the image here but if you visit spacelionsrampant on tumblr or Shadesyste's own tumblr it should be easy to find. Thank you so much again!! ❤︎
> 
> Second shout out to Fantasiame, also on tumblr, who asks questions and theories and is lovely to talk to.
> 
> And of course to my lovely beta readers.

“Hey,” Aileen grinned, kicking out her leg to have her foot clack lightly against Lance’s armor. “What if we skipped out on the rest of the party and raided the kitchen? We might be able to make something that looks like brownie batter.”

“What is a ‘brownie batter’?” Coran wondered, leaning back on his heels as he observed the two teenagers.

“Well, with any luck, you’ll find out,” the blonde replied.

Lance snorted, even as he climbed to his feet. “Are you kidding? The only thing we have right now is that green goo.”

“You can’t ditch a party without brownie batter,” Aileen argued as the trio headed for the door. “It’s tradition.”

The door to the Navigation Bay slid open before they reached it; a little metallic pyramid floating in with all the casual ease of a house cat. It puttered past them without so much as a beep in greeting.

“Oh, hey, Rover,” Lance greeted as the little robot passed. “Where’s Pidge?”

Aileen frowned. “That’s strange-”

Several things happened in the next moment, all at once: the robot- who was definitely NOT Rover- traveled to the giant crystal suspended from the ceiling near the center of the room and began to beep, Aileen turned to follow the robot’s path and jolted as she realized what was happening, and Lance, realizing the same thing, as he grabbed Aileen by the shoulders and shoved the blonde into Coran.

Aileen reached out for the Blue Paladin, aiming to drag him along with her. The world went bright, then dark, before her fingers ever found the armor.

It felt like days when reality began to return to Aileen. Her head was pounding, ears ringing in a way that seemed to scramble the sounds around her. The blonde was almost certain she could feel the vibrations of footsteps as she lay prone on the floor.

Friends? Or whoever had ordered the explosion?

The steps were uneven, as if the person were trying to push through a growing limp, and they skidded instead of stopping, smacking against the doorframe. Vaguely, as if the thought were swimming through syrup, the teenager realized that the door hadn’t opened. It must have been blown off its rails, or whatever allowed the Altean doors to slide open.

“Lee! Lance! Coran, are they-?”

Aileen didn’t wait for the Advisor to respond- though she did register that the man must have been fine and presumably on his feet already. The blonde teenager shot upright, a sudden pounding in her head and blurring of her vision protesting the sudden movement. Aileen hissed a curse under her breath. “Ow, shit. Ren?”

Once her vision cleared Aileen took a moment to survey the scene. Her cousin was still holding the door frame, everyone else crowding in the doorway without making a move to cross the threshold, there was no need to look at the room behind her to know it was in ruins. Bits of debris and dust were thrown as far as Ren’s feet. To her right Aileen could hear Coran shuffling about and muttering under his breath, likely assessing the damage himself. The only thing she didn’t hear was…

Lance was laying face down on the floor, the white of his Paladin armor nearly a dusty gray and hair a mess. There was a small trickle of blood from his hairline running down the side of his face. His hair was a mess, even as short as it was, and potentially singed if the smell was any indication. He wasn’t moving.

Shiro strode into the room, long strides taking him past Aileen in seconds. He kneeled down, lifting the unconscious Paladin carefully- almost as if Lance were a princess from some cheesy romance novel- worry clear on his face. “He doesn’t look good.”

“That’s because he was in an explosion,” Aileen snapped, temper getting the better of her.

“Can you stand?” Ren bent down and held a hand out to her cousin. The edges of her face were hard, lips pressed thin. She was trying not to look as worried as she felt, but not accomplishing it well.

“I’m fine,” the blonde frowned, through she took the offered hand. Once sure Aileen had a decent grip Ren straightened, pulling the teenager back onto her feet. “Lance took the brunt of the blast. We figured out something was wrong but...he was faster. He shoved me at Coran and…” she trailed off, rolling her shoulders and looking conflicted. “I guess he’s braver than I gave him credit for.”

“We have to get him to the Infirmary!” Pidge exclaimed, turning to face the blonde and adding, “You and Coran, too. No one can just walk away from something that big. It shook the whole castle.”

“We can’t.” The words left Allura heavy and dark. “Without the crystal the castle has no power. Nothing will work.  _ Nothing _ .”

“We have to do something! If we don’t Lance is going to- to-” Hunk stopped short, as if physically unable to finish the thought. No one needed him to.

“I’m sorry,” Ren interrupted, expression caught somewhere between alarmed and angry. “Are you saying that the castle has no backup generator? Emergency power for life support functions?”

“The crystal provided more than enough power for the entirety of the Castle of Lions to function at peak efficiency.” Coran sounded more than a little annoyed at the human mechanic for picking flaws in his Grandfather’s design.

“A fat lot of good that does when it’s in a hundred pieces,” Aileen snarked, kicking a piece of the rubble back into the room to prove her point. It clattered noisily against the floor before rolling to a stop out of sight. “No one thought this could be a possibility?”

“Lion Warriors!” As if on cue to make things worse the Arusian king half-tumbled into the room, tripping over the rubble and his own feet in his haste. “Our village is under attack! You must help us!”

“Let’s get to the Lions,” Keith insisted, choosing to focus on the problem with the highest chance of having something for him to hit.

“You can’t,” Allura repeated, though the rising alarm and fear from before was gone. Tucked away in the back of her mind to unpack and deal with later; for now she needed to be a leader. “The castle has no power. We won’t be able to open the hangar doors. Currently we have no means of defense or retaliation.”

In contrast the Arusian king held no qualms about openly panicking, the look on his face close to outright terror. “Will you not help us?”

Lance groaned, the sound quiet and painful and concerningly familiar to Ren. It wasn’t the gasping sort of wheeze she remembered, the Paladin armor had done its job, but it was a reminder that the boy was suffering from more than singed hair and a nasty concussion. The concussion was what currently worried the mechanic the most and the fact that Lance was unconscious, but without the Altean healing technology online there was nothing that could be done about it. The pilot wasn’t a broken microwave, her tools weren’t of any use.

“This is bad,” Hunk said, voicing the general feeling of the room. Anxious energy was practically radiating from the Yellow Paladin, his fingers twisting together for want of something to do as Coran stepped free of Hunk’s supportive hold and straightened. “Like really bad.”

“We need to find a new crystal to get the castle working again.” The Altean Advisor’s voice was still hoarse, either from smoke inhalation or pain, but the gears in his head were turning as he searched for a solution. “But to even start looking I would need a ship-”

“The pod I was loading!” Pidge exclaimed, all but jolting at the realization. “We could still get out. The hangar door was open when the castle went dark.”

A security risk, if anything, but in this moment a blessing. Hope.

“Perfect,” Coran was already moving for the door, even if his steps were slower. “I can use the on-board scanner to see if there are any Bulmera near by. Hunk, you’re with me. I’ll need someone strong to help me move the crystal.”

“Sure, sure,” Hunk fell into step behind the Altean instead of hurrying past him. “But, uh, what’s a Bulmera?”

“I’ll check on the Arusian village,” Keith insisted as something resembling a plan began to fall into place. “We can still get there on foot, scout the area, see what we can do. Maybe we won’t need the Lions.”

“I’ll come with you,” the Princess agreed, mouth pressed into a thin line. The shadows of the darkened room and lingering smoke cast her as a dramatic figure, as if the weight of the situation was settling upon her. “I brought this on the poor Arusians. I’ll do all in my power to help.”

“Normally I’d tag along,” Aileen frowned, even as she shifted her weight between her feet. “I’m mostly unharmed but I am slowed down. I’d be a liability if we ended up in combat.”

“I’ll stay with Lance,” Shiro added, careful not to jostle the unconscious teenager in his arms. “Find someplace safe to lay him until Coran and Hunk get back with another crystal and he can go into a healing pod. Ser? Give me a hand? He’ll be more stable with an extra set of hands.”

“Normally you’re not supposed to move someone with unknown injuries,” Ren said, even as she knelt down to help. “But it’s not like we can just leave him here.”

She would feel better with a stretcher, but there were too many things happening at once to entertain the idea. They would just have to do their best without one and pray the Altean healing magic was up and going again in time to help. The mechanic pushed up her sleeves, picking up the Paladin’s legs at the knees. Between her and Shiro the should be able to keep him stable enough. Barring any internal injury the movement would exacerbate. Or neck and head trauma. Or-

“Where are we going?” Ren asked, figuratively stomping her boot down on the line of thought and crushing it into the floor.

“The main hall?” Shiro offered, sounding uncertain. “I don’t think we can even get into the med bay without power. That’s about as close as we can manage and when the power’s back it’ll be a quick walk to get Lance where he needs to be.”

Ren wasn’t so sure that ‘quick’ applied to getting most rooms in a place as big as the Castle of Lions, but Shiro had a point. The main hall was, well, just that. One of the central rooms in the castle, it would technically reduce the time it took to get to Point B as it was supposed to be equidistant to all the rooms. They would have to take ‘technically’.

“Yeah, okay. Lee, Pidge, do you want to make sure Coran and Hunk have what they need before taking off?”

“Sure,” Pidge nodded, looking between Lance and Aileen. “I should explain the controls anyway. We need to get the Infirmary up and running ASAP.”

“Say,” Aileen squinted suspiciously at the younger Paladin, “What did you mean by ‘pod I was loading’, anyway?”

The Green Paladin turned, briskly walking in the direction the Altean mechanic and the Yellow Paladin had disappeared down moments earlier. “Whelp, better hurry. Coran and Hunk will want to leave soon.”

The blonde teenager glanced at her cousin, who shook her head, before stuffing her hands in her pockets and following. “Don’t think I’m going to let that drop.”

With something at least resembling a plan and an idea of where to go the group scattered. The darkened hallways of the castle weren’t impossible to navigate but they were still largely unfamiliar. With the only light coming from Shiro’s Paladin armor the mechanic had smacked herself against the walls more than once.

“Should have brought one of those head mounted flashlights,” the woman muttered under her breath around the third time her elbow hit the metal walls. “Don’t care how stupid they look.”

“Should’ve eaten more carrots, Ser,” the Black Paladin responded, attempting to inject some humor into his voice.

“That’s a myth,” Ren huffed, promptly smacking the toe of her boot against a corner. “Fuck this place in particular.”

Shiro chuckled, the small sound carrying in the empty hallway. “The main door will still be open. There should be enough moonlight to see once we turn this corner.”

Indeed moonlight filled the main hall, carving large chunks from the darkness, the empty floor now a large expanse as smooth and polished as winter ice. Unfamiliar stars dotted the night sky, easily visible from the immense doorway. From the distance an unnatural purple glow could be seen, steadily growing closer. Ren squinted around the broad shape of Shiro’s shoulders, counting shapes. A person- no, several people.

A commander and his retinue.

“Sendak,” Shiro snarled, even as he stepped back and away from the still open main doorway.

“Oh, so, a friend of yours. Great,” Ren muttered as she backpedaled to avoid accidentally accordioning Lance in on himself with the Black Paladin’s sudden change in direction. If Shiro heard the comment he chose to ignore it, his attention focused outside of the castle, jaw clenched so tight that even in the dim light Ren could see the muscle jumping.

The teenage pilot was laid flat on one of the narrow, decorative surfaces near the floor. It was sort of like a bench and it was better, at least in theory, than the floor itself. The brunette tried not to dwell on the idea that it was a couple dozen flowers away from looking like a funeral wake, what with Lance in his Paladin armor and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Alright, kid,” Ren gave the unconscious Paladin and absentminded pat on the head, hopefully in a place that wasn’t too injured, her full attention following Shiro out of the castle's main door. “Try not to get into any more trouble while we’re gone.”

Shiro had moved to stand in the middle of the doorway, as if he could physically block the Galran Commander and his sentry goons from entering the palace. Light from the too-large moon bathed him in silver, glinting off his armor. For half a heartbeat Ren was sure she had stepped out into a fairy tale.

“Well, well,” Sendak grinned, a gesture more about showing teeth than familiarity. “If it isn’t our wayward Champion. Come to play hero?”

Shiro’s prosthetic arm glowed purple, the light in sharp contrast to the soft moonlight. Pidge had mentioned this soon after the prisoners and Red Lion had been rescued; that Shiro had used his arm as a weapon. Seeing it for herself put Ren’s teeth on edge, torn between the unnatural glow of it and marveling at the mechanics.

“No,” the Black Paladin spoke, words firm and drawing the mechanic from her thoughts. “I won’t let you through.”

“Yes,” Sendak’s smile grew until it couldn’t even be called a smile, the words almost a purr. “You will.”

The bulk of his metal arm shot out, pointed claw tips glinting, swiping for the Paladin across a great distance. Shiro sidestepped, soles skidding against the stonework as he dodged the blow and hair blown back from the force of the missed attack. Sendak’s claws scraped the ground, Ren was certain she saw sparks flash though it shouldn’t have been possible, before his arm twisted to follow the Paladin’s movement.

Shiro braced his arms on the purple surface of the Galran man’s arm, throwing himself over it and tumbling away. The two armored combatants scrambled, neither gaining an advantage but neither backing down. Blows were traded and shrugged off and returned at a pace too fast to be anything but impressive. Ren’s fingers gripped the doorframe, teeth biting her bottom lip until she tasted blood.

Shiro and Sendak connected, a single punch landing with the loud clang of metal on metal as the two fists joined. A cool wind blew as the silence settled, draping over the broken bridgeway in the wake of the blow. Shiro panted, his shoulders rising and falling, even as his eyes remained intense and focused. In retrospect Sendak hardly seemed winded, in large part due to the mobility his particular prosthetic offered.

“You seem to be losing your touch, dear Champion,” the larger man sneered, laughter in his voice. “The Druid Witch will be so disappointed that her little pet project is faltering after all that time she spent tinkering with your arm. In the end I suppose I’m simply the better one- man and model.”

The purple energy connecting Sendak’s arm to his shoulder pulsed, some sort of energy moving down the length like a wave. The Black Paladin was sent tumbling backwards, armor skidding against the ground, catching on debris and leaving Shiro sprawled out. Sendak raised his arm, preparing to take full advantage of the opening, moonlight glinting coldly on purple metal.

Ren felt herself move, even as Shiro braced himself for the impact. She sprinted towards the Galran Commander and the Paladin, faster than she had managed in over a year. She needed to be faster, to push through the limits imposed by metal rods and screws, to push past the pain of moving in ways she was no longer able. What good was all of that physical therapy if she couldn’t get where she needed when it mattered most?

Move. 

Move!

She needed to  _ move _ !

With all the grace of someone seconds away from falling flat on their face, the mechanic threw herself between the two. Ren twisted on her feet, one arm flung wide and her other hand closing around her toolbelt. In a cruel burst of irony, it was only the Galran’s gigantic metal hand closing around her that kept Ren from falling.

There was a moment of sheer, all encompassing panic as the fingers closed around her; punctuated by her coughing gasp as the air was squeezed from her lungs and Shiro’s strangely distant sounding shout of her name.

“Ser! Serenity!”

Sendak’s arm yanked back, with an almost graceful ease that was completely at odds with the bulk and weight of the thing, dragging the mechanic along with it. Ren is certain in that moment that the only reason she didn’t make a sound was because it’s  _ so hard to breathe _ .

“And just what,” the Galran man growled with all the haughty amusement of a cat with the canary. Close enough that Ren could feel the words on her face, all hot breath and threatening bravado. “Good did that do you?”

The mechanic licked her teeth, unsure if the smile that tugged at her lips was a fear response or if her self-preservation had finally been devoured by her need for witty banter. “Well, it got me close enough to try something stupid.”

Her arm, blessedly retaining range of motion, pulled a tool free from her belt and swung upwards. There was a split second where the shaft of the screwdriver caught the moonlight, glinting like some deadly blade, before Ren drove the tool downwards towards the Galran. Sparks flew as it scraped armor before catching at a gap in the armor and finding flesh. It wasn’t a satisfying feeling, forcing something into a place it should not be. A screwdriver wasn’t made for stabbing, it wasn’t sharp. There was resistance, the hot spurt of blood, and the screwdriver stopped before it had sunk deep enough for Ren to feel it did any good.

Sendak  _ roared _ , more fury than pain, and the sound seemed to shake the world around her. Then the world did move, the mechanic flying through the air. For a moment she felt weightless, for a moment all she saw was the stars and the moon. Then the ground reached out to meet her and its embrace was anything but comforting. Ren landed hard, crumpling in on herself, black dancing across her vision as she rolled onto her back. 

The mechanic gasped, struggling to regain the breath that was lost in Sendak’s grip. “I’m going to need that screwdriver back,” Ren wheezed, the words escaping unbidden, “It’s my favorite.”

“Don’t worry,” the Galran man snarled, barely sounding like words through his bared teeth. “I’ll be sure to return the favor.”

The Commander had a personal preference for smashing his foes into the ground, or perhaps Ren had simply sufficiently enraged him. The heavy bulk of Sendak’s metal arm seemed to blot out the night sky above her, silhouetted eerily by the purple glow of the energy beam.

The brunette bit back a curse, struggling to force her body to move. “Oh, fuck me-” 

Her ill-fitting exclamation was cut short, transforming into a strangled yelp as she was unceremoniously yanked to the side. In what felt like the instant before Sendak’s armored hand had crashed down, cracking the stone beneath it, Shiro had thrown himself at the mechanic and pulled her along with him as he tumbled away.

Paladin and mechanic landed in a heap several feet away, having rolled out of range of the debris. Shiro recovered quickly, his armor scuffed but doing its job. He sat up, hands hovering as if he were no longer sure if he should touch her.

“Ser! Say something, are you okay?!”

Blackness swam at the edges of Ren’s vision, slowly encroaching across her field of sight. His words were muffled by the ringing in her ears, but she could still see his face and that was some small comfort, even with it marred in worry. It might be the concussion- distantly Ren was aware that she might have a concussion- but it was so easy to imagine being in that small house back before things went wrong.

_ Oh _ , Ren thought as the world went dark.  _ I forgot how much I missed you. _

 

* * *

 

“Hold up,” Aileen stopped short, grabbing Pidge by the back of her Paladin armor, stopping the Paladin short. “Something’s wrong.”

“What are you talking about?” the Green Paladin asked, adjusting her glasses and frowning at the taller blonde. “We should get back to the others.”

“Something’s wrong,” Aileen repeated, squinting out into the poorly illuminated room. “There, look. Lance is laid out by the door and I don’t see Shiro or Ren.”

“Maybe they’re-” the diminutive scientist’s suggestion was cut short as the Black Paladin came literally flying through the castle’s main door. Aileen bit down a curse, yanking Pidge along with her behind a nearby pillar and clamping a hand over the Green Paladin’s mouth to cut off her sound of surprise. She heard Shiro crash into the floor and grunt with the impact. It sounded like he would bruise, even with the armor.

“How disappointing, Champion.” An intimidatingly large Galran man stepped through the doorway, as casually as someone walking into a coffee shop. “Your little bitch takes a fall and you lose the will to fight?”

Aileen’s fingers tightened against Pidge’s skin and the brunette elbowed her in response.

“Don’t talk about her like that!” Shiro spat and Aileen would have given anything to safely see around the pillar. There was the sound of blows being exchanged, too quick to paint a clear picture of what was happening. If Aileen had to guess the fight had been going on for some time before she and Pidge arrived. But what was that Sendak had said? Something had happened to Ren?

Pidge squirmed against the blonde’s hold, attempting to get free. Aileen opened her mouth to tell the shorter Paladin to knock it off but her words were cut off by a second, separate voice.

“That’s enough. This fight ends now or these two won’t live to see the morning.” There was the quiet, muffled sound of two large and heavy things collapsing onto the floor.

The following moment of silence seemed to stretch on for eternity.

Then there was the faint  _ woosh _ of sudden movement, a soft grunt, and the sound of a heavier body hitting the floor. Aileen felt her stomach lurch in a similar movement, suddenly the room felt much colder.

The Galran Commander laughed, the sound a low and dangerous growl. “Voltron is ours.”

Behind the pillar Pidge finally pried Aileen’s hand from her mouth. The two teenagers exchanged a silent, wide-eyed look.

Not good.

 

* * *

 

The Arusian village was on fire. Even against the night sky the dark smoke could be seen before the smell or heat reached the Princess and the Red Paladin. From the hilltop where they now stood Keith could see that no building had escaped the flames. Galran sentries stood amidst the fire, seemingly unaffected by the heat. A perk of being a robot, he supposed.

“I’m going in for a closer look,” the pilot didn’t wait for a response, practically throwing himself down the steep incline to save time. Keith was sure he’d heard Allura shout in alarm but the sound was lost to the burning fire and the sound of his jetpack stabilizing his descent. In the instant before he landed Keith considered that, perhaps, it was a terrible idea to go leaping into an inferno.

To his surprise the Red Paladin discovered that he hadn’t leaped to a slow-roasted death; the armor keeping nearly all of the heat at bay and once his helmet closed properly over his mouth breathing wasn’t a problem. 

Keith took a moment to gather his bearings: the center of the village should be ahead of him, with most of the sentries. The teenager drew his bayard, moving around the burning buildings in a wide arc. The flames and crumbling wood should conceal his movements and the color of his armor was a bonus in the situation, but Keith couldn’t be sure how well the robotic sentries could see through fire and smoke.

Something was wrong. Keith could feel it like a nagging suspicion lurking at the back of his mind. There were five sentries standing in a semi-circle with their weapons drawn. None of them seemed to have noticed him.

_ Embrace it, _ he could imagine Aileen saying, though Keith couldn’t fathom WHY hers had been the first voice to come to mind.  _ You’ve always been paranoid but in a space war it might just keep you alive. _

_ Your instincts are screaming at you for a reason, _ Ren would say with that casual bravado that made it sound as if she were always in control. If he pictured the Tech Sergeant in her uniform maybe he could pretend this was some horrible Garrison training simulation and he wasn’t about to face outnumbered combat.  _ Pay attention. What do you see? _

_ Patience yields focus. _ The memory of Shiro’s words was like cold water. More than welcome as he stood among the flames, waiting for enemy movement.  _ And focus could save you. _

Keith’s fingers flexed on the handle of his bayard. He tensed, ready to strike.

One of the sentries fell over, head rolling free and disappearing into the burnt wreckage of an Arusian home.

“No!” Keith shouted, realization crashing into him with all the force of a suckerpunch to the jaw. “It’s a trap! They were luring us away from the castle. Scattering our defenses!”

Over the communicator the Red Paladin heard Allura gasp, something in the sound telling him it was at more than just his words. Keith turned, facing where the castle sat on high ground, silhouetted by the giant moon, and cursed.

Where the Castle of Lions had once glowed pale blue it now shown with a foreboding violet light.

_ “We have to get back,” _ Allura’s voice whispered, so low he almost missed it. Then, with more urgency,  _ “We have to get back!” _

The mad dash back to the castle barely registered in Keith’s memory. What he would remember was the sight of the Particle Barrier- glowing the wrong color. It was all  _ wrong _ .- slam securely around the castle mere steps before they crossed the threshold.

Both Paladin and Princess growled in irritation, hands slamming in vain against the surface of the barrier.

“We’re too late,” Keith slammed his hands against the energy wall again for good measure. “Damnit.”

“They have control of the castle,” Allura looked up at the castle that had been her home, eyes as wide and round as the moon. “They’re taking Voltron!”

_ “Oh, they’re taking more than that,” _ Aileen’s voice spoke through the communication line, slightly muffled. For a moment Keith wondered if he was imagining a pre-battle pep talk again.  _ “Or did you forget we’re here too?” _

There were brief, faint sounds of a scuffle and what might have been Pidge adjusting the Paladin armor helmet before the brunette spoke,  _ “Sendak has taken control of the castle. He has Ren, Shiro, and Lance. I think they’re getting ready for takeoff.” _

“Then we don’t have much time,” Allura frowned, the line of her shoulders tight with tension. “Listen, the two of you need to get down to the main engine control panel. Disconnect the primary turbine from the central energy chamber. With any luck the resulting system reboot will buy us enough time to…” the Princess faltered, eyes roaming over the barrier before them. “Figure something out.”

 

* * *

 

“I’m assuming you understood those words,” Aileen frowned, pressing her ear to Pidge’s helmet as she attempted to listen in on the conversation. For the third time the smallest Paladin elbowed her, attempting to gain space. “I wish Ren were here.”

“Guess we’ll just have to get creative on our own,” Pidge hit something on the wrist of her armor and a map of the castle’s layout appeared, shimmering before them on a clear blue screen. Pidge traced a route with a finger. “That’s where we need to go.”

The blonde chewed at her bottom lip, eyes following the path Pidge had traced. “So, elevator. You have a jetpack, that’s a long drop. I think you overestimate my athletic abilities.”

Pidge grinned. The sort of eager gremlin grin that meant someone was about to have a bad time. “Did you forget? We have Rover with us.”

The little triangle beeped helpfully.

“Oh.” Aileen plastered on her best convincing smile. “Greaaat.”

The trip down the elevator shaft was not nearly as terrifying as the blonde had initially imagined. Rover had actually done a great job of not making it feel like she was plummeting to her death. What was terrifying, however, was seeing the turbine up close. Or not  _ up close _ exactly. Aileen wouldn’t get literally close to that thing if she was paid.

The turbine itself was an enormous swirling mass of blue energy. It completely dominated the room and as she and Pidge drew closer Aileen could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Static?

“Okay,” Pidge knelt before a control terminal, prying open the side with her bayard and taking a moment to appraise the machine’s innards. “We just have to- this is all in Altean.”

The blonde teenager frowned, smacking her forehead with an open palm. “Of course it is. This is an Altean ship. Why couldn’t-”

The turbine began to pulse, the energy that made it up swirling and large arcs of electricity sparking from it. Aileen yelped as the pressure in the room seemed to change, growing stronger as the turbine picked up speed. The catwalk beneath their feet began to shake, vibrating in a way that made Aileen think that people were not supposed to be standing here when the turbine was preparing for launch.

“Pidge- do something!”

“I don’t know what to do!” Pidge shouted over the growing noise of the turbine. “If I can’t read the labels I can’t enter the sequence!”

Aileen glanced for the swirling energy mass to the control panel. The green of Pidge’s bayard caught her eye, holding her attention like a bonfire on a dark autumn night. “Ren method,” the blonde blurted, the idea sparking like hot coals across her mind. “Break it now, fix it later!”

The Green Paladin’s eyes widened, shining bright behind the lenses of her glasses. There was no fear reflected in her amber gaze. “Perfect.”

Pidge’s bayard cut like a hot knife through the inner workings of the control panel, the whole thing sparking and sputtering. Pidge stumbled back into the blonde, the two falling backwards onto the cold metal of the catwalk. Aileen could feel the excess static from Pidge’s armor, feel it spark up her arms.

The turbine itself expanded, leaving the two teenagers to fear the worst. Then, all at once, it condensed in on itself and the oppressive pressure of the room dissipated. They could breathe again.

“Perfect,” Aileen sighed, dropping her head back against the catwalk. “Ren will be so proud.”

Pidge laughed, climbing back onto her feet. “Don’t you think she’ll be mad? We basically stuck a fork in an electrical socket.”

“Well,” the blonde amended as she sat up. “Maybe we don’t tell her that part.” She snickered, trying not to think of the fact that her cousin was currently in the hands of an enemy Commander. An enemy Commander that they had no doubt just angered. “We should move. Before Sendak or his Number Two come looking.”

“We’re running away?” Pidge questioned, even as she pulled Aileen back onto her feet and the two teenagers began moving quickly down the catwalk.

“Tactical retreat,” Aileen insisted. “You’re the only one with proper armor and a weapon. Besides, our powerhouses are down for the count or playing as Princess Peach-”

The Green Paladin arched an eyebrow. “They’re not in another castle.”

“Figuratively.” Aileen waved a hand to dismiss the idea, pausing briefly to lean out the door and scope out the hallway. “The point is we shouldn’t let tall, dark, and purple catch us. The coast is clear, let’s move.”


	13. The Tower [Part Three]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's my birthday (3/5)!! My brithday gift to all my wonderful reader is FINALLY FINISHING THIS CHAPTER! Yaay!!

The world returned slowly to Ren: first the concerningly familiar feeling of laying face down on the floor. The silver lining was that the cool metal of the floor seemed to be soothing her full-body bruise, even if the mechanic could tell she was entirely too stiff to move properly even when she tried. Second came the sound. Sendak was angry, yelling about something, but that hardly seemed to be a new development. Something large was humming: mechanical yet not quite, and Ren thought she could feel heat radiating from something large. Distantly, she thought that she could hear Allura’s voice- calm somehow despite everything. How was she so calm?- and Pidge- determined, focused, set on a task. They were discussing something but distorted, far away sounding.

_Not in the room then._ The realization was a small comfort.

“She’s telling the intruder how to take down our defenses,” the second Galran man was explaining. Ren wanted to scoff. Just _who_ were the intruders here?

“Yes,” Sendak had stopped yelling. Instead his voice had taken on that smug sort of sound that happened when he had the upper hand; a cat with the cream. “But the Princess is also helpfully telling us just where to find our little rats. Sentries, find the room. Kill the Paladin and his accomplice. Haxus, repair the engine. Emperor Zarkon has commanded we bring him Voltron. This ship will rise by day’s end.”

Or else. The threat hung heavy in the air, perhaps just as much for Sendak as all that would face the Commander’s wrath if his whims weren’t met.

The mechanic hissed through her teeth, pushing herself into a proper sitting position and immediately regretting the action. Not only was the movement difficult with her hands bound behind her back but every muscle in her body seemed to protest doing their job. Likely from being bounced around like a badminton birdie. Ren opened her eyes, blinking repeatedly as she attempted to adjust to the suddenly purple light of the Navigation Bay.

A large, jagged, and unfamiliar crystal of an equally disturbing purple color had been supplied to power the castleship. Large tubes of wires as thick as she was wide connected this new crystal to the various structures in the room.

_Just what,_ Ren thought bitterly, _is their obsession with purple?_

To her right Lance laid sprawled on the ground. No one seemed to have bothered to tie him up which was concerning in its own right. Sendak, as cocky as he was, didn’t seem the type to overlook a potential threat which meant Lance hadn’t woken up or even seemed likely to do so. Ren cursed her lack of medical knowledge, but even if she knew past basics it wasn’t like she could do anything currently. To her left Shiro sat on his knees, hands tied behind his back. His expression was nebulous, tinted with worry.

“Ser,” he breathed, relief flashing across his face when he noticed her awake. “You’re okay.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Ren muttered before she could think better of it and Shiro frowned. She glanced to the side, watching his face in the purple light. “I’m okay enough.”

 

* * *

 

“Hmm,” Aileen frowned as she and Pidge stood in the doorway to what Allura had called ‘the barrier room’. “This room is full of lightning. I’m pretty sure that’s some sort of safety violation.”

“Yeah, Allura says not to touch those.” Pidge provided helpfully; the tone in her voice making it difficult to tell if she was being sarcastic as she struggled to split her attention between the Princess’ instructions and Aileen’s snark.

Rover beeped urgently, shoving itself between the blonde and the Paladin with enough force to make them stumble. Laser fire erupted from behind them, scorching the metal floor where the two humans had once been standing.

“Oh shit,” Aileen cursed as they scrambled for cover. Though ‘cover’ was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. The control bank was barely enough shelter for Pidge, let alone the taller blonde. For the moment the sentries seemed to be keeping their distance, content with just shooting at their location, but that wouldn’t last.

“How did they find us so fast?” Pidge hissed, a small screen appearing and flashing through several things in quick succession: graphs Aileen didn’t recognize, what might have been a schematic view of the castle, more charts.

“Doesn't matter,” Aileen winced as a shot hit concerningly close. The blonde shifted in an attempt to press the Green Paladin closer to the control bank for cover. “We need an out.”

Pidge’s mouth pressed into a thin line, the light from her holo-screen reflecting the visor of her helmet dramatically. “Our best exit is two floor up.”

Aileen hit the side of the control bank with a fist, baring her teeth in aggravation. “Ren’s right, this castle design sucks.” The blonde took a few deep, slow breaths as she peeked as far as she dared around their poor excuse for cover. “You’re the one with a jetpack. You’ll have the best luck getting out.”

“What-” The Green Paladin paled, amber eyes widening behind the visor.

“I’ll be the distraction. You’ll have to move fast, but I’m sure I can buy you enough time-”

“No!” Pidge interrupted, grabbing the older teenager by the arm to prevent her from moving. “Are you crazy?! I’m not going to let you do that. And Ren-”

“Would do the same thing,” Aileen snapped. “You’re the only one that knows what to do to keep Sendak from taking off with the whole damn castle and the Lions.”

“Then you’re both stupid,” Pidge snapped right back, shoulders rising in irritation. “Besides, if you’d stop trying to throw yourself at laser fire for half a minute, I have a plan.”

The blonde paused, brown eyes watching the younger teenager’s face. For half a moment Aileen considered just shoving Pidge back and following through with her original plan; but the Paladin was crafty. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”

 

* * *

 

“Pidge? Pidge!” Allura shouted, voice rising with panic and concern the longer her cries went unanswered. “I’ve lost contact with Pidge…”

“Damnit,” Keith cursed, kicking the barrier despite knowing it would do nothing, and trying to ignore the adrenaline spiking his heart rate. “Now what do we do?”

The Altean princess was silent, hand covering her mouth as she tried to think. The situation was beginning to look hopeless, with potentially everyone inside of the castle now captured. Allura gasped as a sudden realization sparked, newfound hope igniting like a beacon. “The mice! I can contact the mice to help!”

“The...mice?” Keith repeated slowly, sounding much less hopeful than the princess.

 

* * *

 

The hologram of the Green Paladin lept out from cover, running down the hallway and leaping atop the railing to avoid the laser fire. One of the sentries turned, took aim, and landed a direct hit. The illusion shattered, electricity arcing violently back at the Galran forces. Most of the robotic opponents fell to the ground, twitching violently as their circuits overloaded.

“Yah!” Aileen shouted, bodily throwing herself at the closest sentry. It crashed to the metal floor of the walkway, gun tumbling from its grip. The blonde rolled, dragging the prone sentry with her to use as a shield as the remaining enemies returned fire.

The real Pidge sprinted from behind the control panel when the sentries were distracted, Bayard blade shooting up and hooking inside of a ventilation grate high up. “Aileen!”

“Split the forces!” Aileen shouted back, heaving her sentry shield at the remaining combatants as best she could and diving for its dropped gun. It felt like progress as her fingers closed around the handle.

“Are you kidd- _argh_!” The Paladin’s complaint was cut short as the laser fire refocused on her. Pidge yanked on her Bayard, the weapon pulling her up into the grate. “That’s cheating!”

“I know where to find you!” Aileen insisted, returning fire on the sentries as she ran out the main door of the room.

It wasn’t...technically a lie. If Sendak had sent forces after them to stop them from removing the barrier, it wasn’t much of a leap to assume he’d also sent someone to fix the wreck they had made of the engines. She or Pidge would need to circle back around to keep that from happening. If she could keep some of the heat off Pidge and let the Paladin get there first, then that was a bonus.

Aileen adjusted her grip on the stolen rifle. The temptation to do something stupid was overwhelming. Figuratively she was just as close to the Navigation Bay as the engine room. It was easy to imagine shooting her way in and taking control of the situation away from the Galra.

But Sendak would be there, and he had _actual_ combat experience. Worse, there was a high possibility that he had sent his Number Two to the engine room. Pidge was many things but Aileen couldn’t justify letting the Paladin face armed combat alone for the sake of pride and a shootout.

Could she?

 

* * *

 

As Pidge climbed down the maintenance ladder she had to admit that Aileen had something of a point in splitting up. It had been difficult ditching the sentries that had followed and she had Paladin armor. Rover might have been able to carry the blonde through the air vent but the Green Paladin could think of several places where she could have easily lost the older teenager.

Her broken jetpack sparked and Pidge frowned. Rover wouldn’t have been able to carry the both of them.

“There has to be a way to get Ren and Lee some decent armor or something,” the Green Paladin grumbled as she reached the access panel in the wall. The panel slid open without a sound and Pidge took a moment to admire the circuitry inside. Altean technology was still largely alien- because it _literally was alien_ \- but there was something strangely beautiful about it that was never really found back on Earth.

    Down below the smaller Galra soldier was working diligently on repairing the damage Pidge had caused earlier, still unaware of the Paladin’s presence. If it weren’t detrimental to their goals Pidge would almost be impressed at the speed in which the repairs had happened. “Initializing complete. I’m ready for main power up.”

“Yeah, you do that,” Pidge tapped at her holo-screen in time with the Galra. At the last moment Pidge ramped up three of the bar displays as high as they would go and leapt from the ladder.

For the two heartbeats that the Green Paladin hung in the air and she felt weightless her mind turned to thoughts of her father and brother.

_“I know that one day you’ll fly so far and do such great things that you won’t even remember sitting at this table feeling so jealous and sad.”_

_“I believe in you, pidgeon.”_

Then she began falling and Pidge had to swallow down the urge to scream as focus snapped back to the situation at hand and her fingers closed around Rover.

The triangle beeped a few times as they descended. The electricity surge had dissipated, though crackling could still be heard distantly and Haxus was still crouched low on the metal floor.

“You?” the Galran man hissed, teeth bared. He spat the word as if it were an insult, as if Pidge had drug everything important to him through the mud. “You did this? You’re nothing but a child!”

“I may be a child,” Pidge straightened to her full height, eyes flashing. “But I’m also a Paladin of Voltron. That makes me more than enough for you!”

Haxus chuckled, low and dark, exposing his teeth as he gave a horrific approximation of a grin. “Let me tell you something, child. I am a soldier of the Galran Empire. Nothing stops me but victory or death!” He pulled his blade free with an angry swipe and charged at the brunette.

Only to be met with laser fire halting his advance, pelting his armor and sword as he deflected the blows.

“That sounds like an unhealthy ideology,” Aileen said, jogging up beside the Green Paladin with her stolen rifle raised.

Behind the visor Pidge arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t that basically your ideology?”

“Eh,” the blonde shrugged before firing off several more successive shots. “Maybe if we’re being dramatic.”

“So, always?” Pidge grinned, taking aim with the Green Bayard at Haxus’ feet. The grappling hook shot forward, reaching eagerly for Galran legs.

Haxus snarled, baring teeth as he dropped down to meet the grappling hook. He caught the cord connecting it to the Bayard and pulled. The Paladin yelped in alarm as she was tugged off of her feet and dragged along the length of the walkway.

“Pidge!” Aileen shouted, firing again. Haxus released the Green Bayard and lept to avoid the shots, sailing towards the blonde with sword raised. Aileen stepped back, raising the gun to block the blow. The weapons collided, blade tip concerningly close to her nose, and her arms shook from the force of it. Aileen shifted her grip on the stolen rifle before pushing upwards, separating the weapons with a shower of sparks and putting some distance between them.

“Yaah!” The Green Paladin landed heavy on the Galran man’s shoulders, Bayard poised to strike. Haxus’ arm shot up, grabbing ahold of the smaller teenager and flinging Pidge at Aileen. The blonde gasped, dropping her weapon in an attempt to catch Pidge, the two of them crumpling to the ground with the sound of impact and bruised bodies.

“Nowhere left to run,” Haxus sneered, raising his sword. The purple glow of the blade catching his face and lighting the malicious gleam in his eyes. “Nowhere left to hide. This ends here!”

With a series of beeping like a battle cry Rover appeared, slamming full force into Haxus’ face with a horrible crunch. The Galran soldier tipped sideways, over the railing of the walkway and past the point of no return.

“Yes!” Aileen shouted, followed almost immediately by Pidge’s cry of “No!”

At the last instant before he toppled into oblivion Haxus had closed his hand around Rover, claws scoring gouges into the metal body of the little robot. The Green Paladin surged forward only to stop short as Aileen tightened her arms around Pidge. Rover beeped, solemn and low, before the light inside it blinked off.

As if in slow motion bot robot and Galra disappeared from sight.

“Rover!” Pidge screamed as the sound of Haxus’ fall faded from earshot.

Aileen kept one arm around Pidge’s shoulders, holding the smaller brunette close, the other arm raised in a salute for the fallen robot.

_“Haxus,”_ Sendak’s voice barked through the terminal, shattering the heavy quiet of the moment. _“Report!”_

Pidge shook, breaking free of Aileen’s hold and slamming her hands against the terminal. “Haxus is dead! And you’re next! We’re coming for you, Sendak.”

Silence stretched on as Aileen stood to retrieve her stolen rifle. When the Commander spoke again she could hear the purr in his voice. _“You may try. But allow me to give you a glimpse of your fate.”_

_“Pidge? Aileen?”_ Shiro’s voice was almost a relief, if you ignored the way it shook- the rising panic as he spoke. _“Whatever you do don’t listen-”_

There was a crackling sound, as if the speaker had dissolved into static. Or electricity sparking through a live wire. Aileen inhaled sharply, brown eyes widening.

Shiro _screamed_.

 

* * *

 

The Red Paladin paced a short circuit along the length of the barrier-covered main door of the castle, irritation and impatience practically radiating from him.

“That isn’t helping,” Allura chided, hands clasped together under her chin and eyes fixed solidly on the lavender hued barrier.

“And that is?!” Keith snapped, bristling. He lifted a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose, breathing in sharply. It sounded more like a growl than a meditative breath. “This is taking too long.”

“We just have to trust them,” the Princess answered as if Keith wouldn’t notice how tightly she held her hands together.

“The mice or Pidge and Aileen?”

“Yes,” Allura answered slowly.

The Red Paladin grunted and went back to pacing a line into the dirt. He completed three more circuits before Allura’s gasp stopped him short. Keith whirled around, reaching for his Bayard.

“The barrier!”

In front of them the purple energy crumbled in on itself, fading away and leaving the Castle of Lions open to the world once again.

“Finally,” Keith hissed through his teeth, sprinting off with sword drawn.

Only to stop short in the entryway as the last echoes of all-too-familiar screaming faded from the speakers.

_“You will surrender,”_ Sendak hissed, a horrible bodiless voice in the dark. _“Or you will die.”_

 

* * *

 

“I’m impressed,” Sendak remarked casually, observing the prisoners the same way one observes boxes of screws at the hardware store. Not wholly invested but interested enough to find what he was looking for. “That you even managed to escape, Champion. Perhaps it would be worth visiting your pathetic excuse for a planet if all there house as much spirit as you and your companion.” The Commander’s teeth shown in the dim light like polished knives. “It always makes it so much more satisfying to break them when they put up a fight. Isn’t that right?”

Shiro said nothing, slumped forward on his knees and jaw tight. This was not an act of defiance, Ren could read it in the curve of his shoulders. In the way his eyes stared at the floor as if it were miles away. She could still hear his screams, as if the echo was trapped in the room, repeating.

“You haven’t won yet,” the mechanic growled through her teeth. “In fact, you’re outnumbered now. Why don’t you save us time and surrender now?”

“Optimistic, aren’t you?” the Commander sneered. “I already won the moment the Champion couldn’t keep me from the door. No one here has given me much of a fight.”

It was Ren’s turn to sneer, felt the words in her mouth as if they were some hard won prize. Felt the flash of satisfaction as she spoke, “I got you good enough to make you bleed, _Commander_.”

Sendak’s boot shot out, connecting with the woman’s ribs and knocking the air from her lungs. Ren choked on her sound of alarm, teeth clicking closed as she grimaced. She hit the ground, unable to find balance with her hands tied behind her back, and rolled across the floor. The former Tech Sergeant gasped for air, mind scrambling for options. The same boot flashed across her field of vision, heel pressing into her stomach. It wasn’t enough to crush her but it did prevent her from finding her breath.

“I enjoy spunk in my women, but yours is beginning to grate on me.” The sole biological eye in the Galran man’s head flashed dangerously, betraying his calm front. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, trying to draw my attention from the Champion. Do you think you can save him?”

Ren spat, her mouth tasting like copper. “You’ll have to kill me before I let you take him.”

Sendak opened his mouth to retort, no doubt something cliche like ‘that can be arranged’ only for the words to never form. Instead there was the flash and sound of laser fire and one of the Galran Commander’s ears was smoking from a brand new hole. Sendak turned, all teeth and rage, to face the assailant and found a teenager in the doorway with a stolen sentry rifle.

“That was a warning shot,” Aileen returned the Galran’s anger with her own, hands steady as she aimed the laser rifle but eyes blazing. “Keep trying your luck and I’ll show you what happens to people who hurt my cousin.”

“Lee..” Ren said through gritted teeth and in the single glance the blonde spared her- _you don’t take your eyes off the target_ \- Aileen couldn’t tell if Ren was impressed at the shot or horrified that her cousin had announced herself to a madman.

“An impressive shot, little girl,” Sendak began, pressing his foot down on the mechanic. “You might have even-”

The laser fired again in quick succession, forcing the larger man to take a step back and away from Ren, even as most of the shots bounced off Sendak’s armor and massive prosthetic.

“Shut up,” Aileen spat, stepping through the doorway to the Navigation Bay. “I’m not here for your monologues. You’re outnumbered and this ends _now_.”

“Outnumbered?” Sendak repeated, scoffing. “You think the addition of you and your stolen gun will turn the tides?”

“She’s not alone.” Keith stepped through the doorway and around the blonde, sword drawn and face a mask of fury; He knew exactly where to point his anger.

Several things happened at once: Keith sprang forward to engage Sendak with Aileen providing cover fire whenever the Galra Commander aimed for a blindside attack, Pidge moved along the edges of the battle to Shiro, Lance, and Ren, and Allura made for the control panel to wrest the castle back into her control.

Pidge dropped to her knees beside the older woman, hands raised as if to help but unsure of where was safe to touch. “Ren, are you-”

“I’ll live,” the mechanic insisted, cutting off the Green Paladin’s question and knowing no one would believe her claims at fine. “You have to help them finish this. I’m not going anywhere.”

Pidge’s mouth was a thin line but there was determination in her eyes as she drew her Bayard, green glow of the blade illuminating her face. The non-purple color of it hurt Ren’s eyes but it was a relief to see something else.

Behind them Shiro had found his way to his feet, charging at Sendak like a linebacker as the Galra tossed Keith across the room at Aileen. The Commander lashed out with his natural arm, smacking the still-bound Black Paladin away with a punch to his face.

Red Paladin and blonde did not collide, either through luck or Aileen’s not-so-graceful scramble out of the way. Keith hit the ground and rolled back onto his feet, thankfully avoiding impaling himself as he kept ahold of his Bayard. He sprinted forward, raising the blade high and stabbing it through the huge metal prosthetic, impaling through the hand and trapping it.

Pidge swooped in, a flash of green, her Bayard severing the energy bond connecting arm and Galra.

Sendak roared his annoyance and rage. “This means nothing! I will still-”

Laser fire silenced the impending rant, staggering the Galran man and forcing him to retreat back towards the sickly purple crystal. Keith glanced back at Aileen, half from reflex. The blonde looked just as surprised as he felt and the Red Paladin realized the shots hadn’t even come from her direction.

A final shot fired, sending Sendak crashing against the crystal, several small pieces breaking free and shattering against the ground. From the control panel Allura pressed several buttons in quick succession, raising a barrier and trapping the Commander behind it.

“Hah,” the Blue Paladin lowered his Bayard and grinned as Sendak screamed in anger and pounded against his cage. Lance swayed heavily, returning to unconsciousness, a satisfied smirk across his face.

“Damn,” Aileen said, sounding impressed despite herself. “I wanted to do that."

 

* * *

 

Lance, clad all in while, stood silent and motionless inside the healing pod. Aglow in the pale blue light of Altean technology he looked peaceful, but it was almost impossible to tell he was breathing. Snow White inside the glass coffin.

“After a day in here,” the Princess assured the room. “He should be as good as new.”

Her smile was bright and genuine but Aileen couldn’t help but feel it was too good to be true. Shaking the skepticism from her head the blonde turned her attention to the conversation between Paladins.

“Pidge, you did great today,” Shiro was starting to look like himself again, despite the scuffs to his armor. “I can’t help but feel like you’re meant to be part of this team. But...if you want to leave, I won’t stop you.”

The smallest Paladin smiled, fondness evident in her face and words. “Dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. That they were like family- _were_ family. I think I’m starting to understand what he meant, outside of Ren and Lee. I’m staying here, with you guys. Let’s defeat Zarkon together, for everyone’s families.”

Keith smiled, rare and genuine, as he reached out to place a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “Good to have you back.”

The moment was thoroughly destroyed as Aileen appeared from the Green Paladin’s peripheral, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Where were you going to go?”

“Uh,” Pidge faltered under the weight of the blonde’s stare, eyes searching the room for a distraction. “Where’s Ren? She really should be in one of these healing pods too.”

“Oh, I’ll get to her,” Aileen tsked, eyes moving from the Green to Black Paladin. “But on that note so should you, Shiro.”

The pilot blinked. “Me?”

The blonde’s expression deadpanned. “You were electrocuted.”

“She has a point,” both Princess and Red Paladin agreed. The two exchanged a quick look and Allura cleared her throat before continuing. “You needn’t be concerned with remaining in one for as long as Lance.” She reached out, placing a hand on Shiro’s arm. “It would not be dissimilar to a nap. It could do you some good.”

“Ah,” Shiro lifted his free arm and scratched at the back of his neck. “I suppose, if it won’t take long or put a strain on the ship.”

“It won’t,” Ren answered, stepping into the Medbay. Her steps were a slow and deliberate attempt at hiding her pain. “Between me, Hunk, and Coran we’ve got enough power to the ship for the night. We’ll need to do something more involved before anyone tries to fly this thing but there’s no worries about losing power in the night.”

The mechanic smiled, blue eyes meeting amber. Ren held open her arms and Pidge scrambled forward. The Green Paladin stopped short, carefully stepping into the hug.

“I was so scared,” Pidge whispered into the woman’s shirt as Ren closed her arms around the Paladin, words lost to all but the mechanic. “You and Shiro were captured and Lance was hurt and- and-”

“I’m so proud of you,” Ren ran her fingers through the messy strands of Pidge’s hair before looking up at her cousin. “Both of you. All of you. This could have ended much worse. I’m glad it didn’t.”


End file.
